"Camping out for tickets" stories of Movie & Concert goers

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So my adventure in spending the night out in front of some venue for tickets was the U2 Joshua Tree concert coming to Tampa Bay back in 1987. I was 17.

It was the Bishop Planetarium, and the hottest group in the world at the time was U2, and the comeback tour of Pink Floyd. I remember because the entire night outside the place all you could hear was U2 or Floyd music playing. I had heard on the radio the day before they went on sale, and went right there immediately, making no stops for preparations at all. Just me, my sneaks, my jeans, t-shirt, and thin denim jacket. More on that later.

So I got there, and saw there was a small group that had been camping out already for a week. They had the small tent, lawn chairs, coolers, and etc... Even so it was a small group and I was 9th or 10th in line. I made some calls to my friends, told them the skinny, but they had to work (friday nights and restaurants go hand n hand). They said theyd send the youngest lads in the group to bring me the money at least, but I was solo.

The day wore on and by late afternoon the line grew to where it was going around the Planetarium. As night came near there was a herd of high schoolers, roughly 20-30 kids, that came and plopped themselves right next to some guy that was in front of me. The entire line was pissed, much mumbling & grumbling, and to make matters worse the herd decided to have a party. Beer drinking, U2 & Floyd constantly playing, and assorted kids throwing up into bushes.

By night time it was cold, and I mean cooooold. Thin jean jacket was not doing the trick, and Florida or not the wind was coming right off the river to the crowd. I couldnt sleep, but would pace for warmth. Some cute college aged girls saw and took pity on me. So we started talking I was doing my best to appear mature, to talk confidently. They seemed to be responding well, and I forgot the cold. Then my derpy friends arrived.

Eric and Ryan were still in high school, Eric was ok, but Ryan was a twitcher. He would get so ridiculously hyper, blink, stutter, and say the most outlandish stuff. His appearance just screamed high school. Just so excited, saying he knew some kids in the crowd, and maybe he could get a beer!! Ohgh! The two college girls were laughing their ass off due to how obvious I was trying to play cool, and the image disaster of hurricane Ryan. They left, the girls went to sleep, and it felt cold again. Pace pace pace...

Morning time. Much warmer, and the high school kids were passed out. About an hour before the Planetarium was supposed to open people in 2s or 3s started walking past the line up to the door. Then more, and more, and then there was a rush by everyone! The general grumblings were the mass in line werent gonna let those "high schoolers" skip in front of the line like they did.

The poor guys that camped out for a week were on a flagpole showing the front page of a newspaper from 3 days before where their picture showed them camping out. Well there is no mind to a mob, and when the Planetarium employees started arriving, the head person said that if this didnt thin out there'd be no tickets for sale. People were generally scared because a venue did cancel their ticket sales a month before to a Pink Floyd concert.

So theres this big old biker, and we hit it off during the hysteria. He plows to the front of the crowd to speak to the lady. Me and him were the biggest guys there, and he arranged to where he and I would let people in groups of 5 go in. Me and he got the first pick of the tickets for doing that.

I went home, collapsed, and probably caught a cold. The show?! It was my first concert, and it was awesome.



Haha great story Tongo!
I've queued for lots of tickets in my time, you always used to get a great rapport going. Sadly things aren't the same now sitting at the end of a phone line or spending endless time refreshing your screen trying to get tickets , just not the same and you know loads of touts are getting them too