In case you haven’t heard, our very own Nick Carter and AJ McLean have joined forces with N’Sync’s Joey Fatone and Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris for The After Party, a limited engagement Las Vegas residency at the Venetian Resort in August. T
he announcement came about 24 hours before presale went on sale via Ticketmaster, along with, wait for it…MEET AND GREET! And even Soundcheck!! After what feels like a lifetime, live events are coming back! And I am so here for it!
And along with that comes the ticket purchases. The excitement, the anticipation, and the joy of preparing to snatch your seats is unparalleled. Although not everyone is able to get to this particular event, most of us can relate to these feelings from some past ticket-buying experience.
But then there’s the anxiety…that’s that feeling in the pit of your stomach, the sweaty palms, and that feeling of impending doom of what if something goes wrong.
That, “I’m gonna puke“ feeling is par for the course as it gets closer to ticket buying time. What if we can’t get good seats? How many people are we going to be fighting? WAIT! What if it sells out and we can’t get ANY seats!? We have to think positively…WE WILL GET SOMETHING!
Pre-gaming for the ticket-buying event is a whole other game.
Coordinating ticket purchases, who is going, which date, what’s our price point? And it all a guess because we don’t usually get pricing ahead of time.
Coming up with a Plan A (front row at all costs) and a Plan B (front row in any of the lower sections). But then there’s also a Plan C (anywhere in that front middle section), Plan D (anywhere in the front) or Plan E (JUST GET IN THE BUILDING!).
There’s conversations about “Are there too many of us? Should we split up?” and “What about upgrades? What is included? Who is in for that?” Not to mention coordinating travel and hotels. Some of us have to work around our jobs.
Can I reschedule that meeting or take a break right at 9:55am to be ready to go? How many people in our group are going to be trying for seats at once if I can’t get out of that work commitment?
Then, the countdown begins. The morning of ticket sales, we’re logging into our Ticketmaster account to double check it’s working.
Checking that we have presale codes or fan club logins if we have access to those.
Some coordinate multiple devices or browsers to have more chances to get good seats. It’s a whole choreographed orchestra with a lot of moving parts. Although having multiple windows open can help you with options, it definitely adds to the stress, navigating between devices or browsers as that little wheel spins all too slowly while you wait for your seats to show.
Half the time, by the time the wheel stops spinning your seats have been claimed by someone else. Feel that pit in your stomach sink further while you refresh for the next best seats. Once those cone up, we need to compare. “I got Row G, anyone get anything better?” in the group text.
The countdown clock ticks down as we refresh and reload and compare til we are either satisfied with what we have, about to run out of time to buy the seats in our cart, or give up and accept that we have the best seats we are going to be able to get. The rapid texts come through. “Should I go??” “Anything better?” “Times running out!” Before the decision text comes through: “GO, GO, GO!”
And then that relief comes: “Done! We got them!” We can relax a bit now. We secured our seats and are going to the show! We will be seeing them live!
But sometimes, the paradox of emotions sets in…we are going and I’m stoked! Buuuttt those aren’t the seats I wanted and I’m disappointed.
And then the wild thoughts…maybe I can get a better ticket to a different show? What if we buy these seats that magically showed up in the front row after they dropped out of someone’s cart and just sell ours? Or maybe we should save our money for a possible after party? Endless questions and wondering if we made the right call until finally, we just accept and settle into what we got.
At the end of the day, we can actually relax because regardless of where we are sitting, we are going to the show! Now the planning for the day of begins. The anticipation of showtime and all that comes along with seeing the boys and our backstreet friends.
Until the next show or tour is announced. And then it starts, all over again.