My Summertime Ball Experience

~ Me, Jessie and Leana outside Wembley stadium ~

 This time last year I was preparing myself for the Summertime Ball and if you don't know what that is then WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!!
It's basically a day long concert that takes place at Wembley Stadium each year hosted by Capital FM.
 Many different popular acts appear and last year I was lucky enough to see the likes of Ed Sheeran, The Wanted, Katy Perry, Lawson, Coldplay and Justin Bieber (although not so lucky to be seeing Pitbull - he looks more like a criminal than a pop artist!)
I went with 2 of my friends, Leana and Jessie, although it seemed like a popular family event too as we were surrounded by families. I'd rather go with my friends though - parents never seem to get into concerts as much as teenagers do, or maybe that was just the ones seated near me!
Although I loved the Summertime Ball in 2012, I wasn't planning on going again this year due to the ticket prices which range from around £50-£300?! However, when the 2013 line-up was announced, I found out Taylor Swift was going to be there to which I texted my mum something along the lines of 'TAYLOR SWIFT IS AT THE SUMMERTIME BALL AND I'M NOT GOING :(((' And my mum, after seeing me cry so many times over not being able to go to Taylor Swift's tour, replied with 'OMG! I'll check out tickets for you' So I spent my maths lesson sneakily texting my mum from under the table and guiding her through the ticket buying process. It was extremely stressful but I can now very happily say that I'M GOING TO SEE TAYLOR SWIFT LIVE!!!!

Where to sit?!

Being the cheapskates we are, we went for the cheapest tickets we could find last year which were £55 each and I sat in Block 527, Row 42, Seat 12 (is it sad that I can still remember that without checking?) The picture below was the view from my seat and although it looks like you can't see the stage very well, you definitely could! The rows go up to 45 so we were nearly right at the top however the only disadvantage of this was the stairs. They are an absolute killer! But despite the stairs, we were all very pleased with where we sat

Even though we vowed we'd spend the £85 required to be on level 1 seating next time, as we were slightly late in buying the tickets there were no level 1 seats left. But this time the level 5 tickets were £50 and we're going to be quite a bit closer to the stage! We'll be in block 528 which is one block closer to the stage than last year and in row 28, seats 38 and 39. (Yes I've memorised these seats as well). Although I have no experience of sitting on level 1 I personally believe level 5 is still amazing and from there you still have a good view and still feel the crazy atmosphere (especially when Justin Bieber's on stage...)

~ My view of the stadium during the concert from Block 527, Row 42, Seat 12  ~

~ Lawson! ~

 Where to eat?!

My advice for this is to eat a very big breakfast as there won't be much time for eating after that! Before going into the stadium, we first went into the crowded McDonalds next to it where we queued for 40 minutes as it was packed with hundreds of other people attending the Summertime Ball. Definately worth it though; you can't beat McDonalds chips!
My other advice for food is to take some of your own snacks with you. But be careful - they check your bags. I hid our sausage roll stash and 2 bottles of water in a pair of jeans I had in my bag to change into after the concert (it would be cold at 10pm!) They checked my bag but didn't find these, so we ate sausage rolls all throughout the concert.
They have food to buy in the stadiums but the queues were long and the food was expensive, so I'll definitely be bringing my own again this year.

~ The Wanted! - I'm pretty sure Siva was looking directly at the camera ~

 ~ More of The Wanted! ~

Grumpy Men?!

Believe it or not, even in a stadium full of teenagers and boybands, you still get grumpy men trying to ruin it for you! Of course, out of everywhere they could be sitting it had to be right behind us.
Coldplay was the first act on and only a few people in our area were standing up and really getting into it, so we decided to join them. At this point, the 3 middle aged men began tapping us on the shoulder very violently and shouting that we were in their way and that we
were ruining it for them. We then missed half of Coldplay's performance by arguing with them that 'this is a concert, you're supposed to stand up!'
They didn't seem to understand the concept of a concert though and complained to the staff that we were blocking their view. But to their disappointment, the staff came back saying we were allowed to stand and cheer throughout the concert, so we and everyone else around us who also got out their seats had a good time while they sat there mumbling about how they were unlucky to be sat behind 'the noisest girls at the concert.' I actually feel quite proud that we were given that title.

 Take a good camera!

 In the knowledge that it was going to be a very long concert, I took two camera batteries with me which I'm very glad I did as I managed to completely drain both batteries! As I was sitting so high up I took a camera with a good zoom and only a few of these pictures have been cropped. This picture of The Wanted and the Justin Bieber picture further down haven't and I'm very happy that I took a camera with such a good zoom so I could take close up pictures.

~ Ed Sheeran! ~

~ My ears still haven't recovered from how loudly everyone was screaming when he came on stage ~

So theres only a few days left until this years Summertime Ball! Have you been before or planning to go this year? Who are you looking most forward to seeing?

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