So being the fun friend I am, we arrived at the venue an hour early and were able to wait in line in the hot sun for at least 45 minutes. I'm sure everyone hated me. However, I was extremely determined to get my meet and greet passes which I knew would be gone in minutes of the hate opening. So as I stood there shaking with nervousness about those passes, my friends and cousins were not amused. I told them it would all be worth it.
Once we finally got in the venue, it was a forced fast walk to the correct tent. We were about the 50th people there. After waiting in this line for about another 45 minutes, we got our beautiful meet and greet passes PLUS VIP passes. I was in fan girl heaven.
Hours later, we waited in line about 45 minutes again and I was able to meet Of Mice and Men in real life. What do you say to your favorite band ever who's vocalist is Austin Carlile? You get up there and say something stupid because your brain turns off. I don't even know what I said. But since I wasn't offered a hug like a few fans before me had, I'm sure I said complete nonsense. Sorry Austin and fellow band members for my social awkwardness.
Just my luck, Of Mice and Men were the last band to play that day at 8:30pm. To put that into perspective, we got to the venue at 10am. I'm almost positive everyone was hating me at this point. But it was a once in a lifetime (probably) exprerience! How can I let this go?!
So me being me, I went to the stage at 5pm. I stood through four other bands pushing closer to the front everytime. I found out that the closer to the front you get, the less people care about personal space. Also, more people really like to crowd surf in the front. At first this was frightening since someone could fall on top of me at any waking moment. However, the closer I got to the front the closer I got to the security guards who grabbed those surfers and life became a lot less scary.
After about an hour, my friends could no longer handle the lack of personal space and smell of hundreds of sweaty people. But I was still determined to be front row at 8pm so I stayed. Hours went by and I had the internal battle whether my feet would fall of or if I would pass out. Luckily neither happened.
At 8pm, there I was up front and beaming in sweaty glory. For the band's 30 minute set, my long day of waiting was all worth it.
I think I need about a year to recover from that day. At least my stubbornness and determination paid off!
