As summer approaches, responsibilities get thrown out the window and we try and keep friendships as well as start summer jobs. But what fun are all work and no play? This is where the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), one of the reasons Upstate New York is popular, gets showcased and packed with people from all around the area for a variety of artists to put on concerts. Although your SPAC days may have come and gone when you no longer perform the staple rituals known to many teenagers in the Capital Region, we all remember a time when these statements were on point.
1. We only need one more person for a 4 pack of lawn seats!
Ah, the beloved lawn 4 packs. We all know that this is the best deal possible when the only reason we pay for this is to drink in a larger social setting. Buying the tickets at the box office ensures the best deal possible because if the tickets weren’t inflated enough on the Live Nation website, you now have to pay $13 for the service fee to print the tickets or have them on your phone.
2. Wait, where are the pools again?
This will forever be the biggest struggle of the concert- finding the pools. Walking around every parking lot trying to figure out where the rest of the people you know are to pregame and take pictures with. This area is often surrounded by cop cars and littered with empty soda bottles once holding a mixed drink of sorts. Along with finding the best route to the pools, timing is key, arriving at the pools too early or too late may ruin your night and force you to down your drink or in desperate need for more alcohol.
3. How am I sneaking alcohol into the concert?
Whether you flatten water bottles to put them in your waistband, shove it in your bra, hide it in your shoes, empty old perfume bottles, or buy the tampon flasks, every year until you’re 21 more creative ideas will come to mind. Trial and error, and remember discretion is key.
4. Did she make it in?
We all saw that girl struggling on the walk from the pools to the gates and we all question if her friends made her get herself together for the 2 minutes it takes to make it into the concert.
5. Which bridge is everyone under?
Each school has a well-known bridge that is a guarantee to find your friends. Each school in the capital region claims one of the 4 bridges and with school rivalries comes territory.
6. Where did all my friends go?
You find yourself caught up in conversation as the area between the food courts and the lawn becomes a packed mess, filled with people that you can’t quite put their face to their name. Standing there helpless, moves are made and you complain to anyone you’ve ever met for help to find your friends, even though they were right behind you.
7. Who is going to volunteer their parent/ DD home?
No one wants to do it, but somehow we have to get home.
8. Is that a joint? Yes, that's a joint.
Somehow marijuana suddenly became legal once everyone steps foot onto the SPAC lawn. We become ruthless and it’s suddenly socially acceptable to smoke a joint in front of a family of four with kids under the age of 10.
9. The concert started already?
While socializing, convincing twenty-somethings to buy you alcohol, and taking excessive pictures, losing track of time is often the case. Odds are, by this time you’ve already missed your favorite songs, which is the only reason you justified coming to the concert. You then meander your way through the maze of drunk people trying to find your way to the front and make up for lost time.
10. I want to go down and listen to music!
Which is a lie… You just want to make out in a crowd of people.
11. Do I really want to spend $15 on chicken fingers and fries?
The answer is always, "No," but somehow you always end up with those chicken fingers or the $9 freshly squeezed lemonade.
12. I need to find someone with a wristband!
This is the only way to get alcohol once you're in the concert, finding a stranger that gives off trusting vibes to hand $21 too so they can return with two overpriced tall boys.
13. Who made out with who?
This pastime becomes unavoidable for those who find they drank even a little too much, their hormone levels are too high, or maybe it was an effort to bargain for more alcohol.
14. OMG. I’ve missed you, we need a picture!
I think this is the catch phrase for every girl at the concert once the slightest bit of alcohol touches their lips.
