Traveling for concerts?

Music.

That is something that is very important to me. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t have some kind of a music player with me, ready to be listened to. An year ago you wouldn’t see me without my iPod Classic. Now it’s usually my iPhone with my current favorites on it. Music is a way for me to put some emphasis on my feelings, like if I’m feeling particularly sad or happy. Sad or bittersweet music helps me be even more sad so that I can get over it more easily, and happy music only makes me happier (Because I’m happy, Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof—). Sometimes I just need to get my feelings out by belting out some really nice lyrics all by myself where nobody can listen to me or during karaoke night. Nightwish, Kamelot, Imagine Dragons, Celine Dion, Rihanna, Adele, Katy Perry… You name it. But what is even better than listening to music, or singing? Listening to live music.

I love going to concerts. Listening to my favorite artists and bands live gives me always such a rush. I love the excitement during the days leading up to a concert, as well as the happy memories during the day(s) after. Not to mention the feelings during the actual concert. The only problem sometimes with people going on tours, is that the tour doesn’t come to Helsinki or close-by. So, you need to travel. So, alright, let’s do it! I’ve sat in a train for 5 hours each way to attend a Nightwish concert a couple of times. No problem. But to go to another country? Who does that? That’s just crazy! Or so I thought until I found myself planning to do just that.

I was very happy when Adele announced that she is going to go on tour. I saw a clip from her show at the Royal Albert Hall, and I knew I needed to go see her perform at some point. I was very disappointed to see her rather , erm, “limited” number of tour cities (so far). But there was a silver lining on that cloud, as Stockholm isn’t that far away, or hard to get to 😉

I did all the necessary steps in preparing for a massively active ticket sales event, and joined the fan club to join the pre-sale rush. I think I was queueing for about 2 hours for tickets on Tuesday for the Stockholm show, but they sold out before it was my time to select tickets. So I decided to try again on Friday.

I had a reminder on my phone 10 minutes before tickets came on sale, but I didn’t need it as I already checked the website around 10:30 my time, so 30 minutes before the store opened. I was happy to see that they had opened the waiting room already, so I entered that, put in my information and continued my work while leaving the website open on my other screen. Multitasking at its best, haha 😀

I had just enough time to call my credit card issuing bank before it was my turn to select tickets. I had to check if everything was in order, because there was a mention on the store about a new security system for that bank’s cards when buying things online, so I needed to update some of my information before I could use the card. I think I had to sit and wait in line for 10 minutes before they answered (the sorry, we are busy, we apologize for the inconvenience message got boring very quickly). Luckily they were able to update the info just before I got through on the store and proceed to pick my seat!

For a moment there I didn’t know how to use the seat selection. I had made a decision to get the most expensive seats available because I wanted to get close to the stage, and when I went to click on the Front Floor section and find tickets (or something along those lines), it only said that there were none left. I did it a couple of times with different sections of the Floor plan, but always got the same message. In the end I was getting a little desperate so I just clicked the find the best seats in any section button. And voilà! I got a ticket from the very section I had wanted to get one from in the first place. And it’s a great ticket as well! Row 8. EIGHT!! It was shown to be in the very middle of the seating area as well, so I am very happy. Very happy, and extremely lucky.

I’ve been reading the event page on Facebook, and it seems that there were a lot of people who were kicked out of the system when they were preparing to proceed to make the payment, or at some other point, and that is why they had to start all over again. I was panicking for 4 hours after buying the ticket, because the promised confirmation of purchase and my eticket never came “shortly”. I was sure I had paid only to never receive my ticket. Luckily I worried in vain, as the ticket came through later in the evening 🙂

I also hadn’t realized that I really should reserve a hotel room for the night of the concert right away. Someone mentioned about hotel rooms on the Facebook page, and then I rushed to find one for myself in the city. There was lots of full hotels for that night already, but I managed to find one! I also looked at cruises between Helsinki and Stockholm, and found a cabin for both ways. I just didn’t book the cruises yet, because they were quite expensive, so I really hope they won’t sell out before I have the money, haha. If they do sell out, I just need to take a plane – or go a little earlier during the week. I’d just rather go on a cruise, though, because it would give me the perfect excuse to get a ticket to the buffet on the ship, haha. Mmmm, all those delicious desserts…

But yes. This will be very exciting, and something new to experience again. Looks like it’s not so bad if concerts avoid Finland… They just might stop in Sweden instead… 😉