Harry Styles Live On Tour: Ft. Lauderdale // REVIEW
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Arts Entertainment

Harry Styles Live On Tour Was Everything I wanted and More

Harry, my bubby, thank you for one of the best nights of my life.

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Harry Styles Live On Tour Was Everything I wanted and More
Caitlin Powers

I have been waiting to see Harry Styles on his solo tour for nearly a year, as of now. I hadn't been able to see him during his very first solo tour (because he didn't come to Florida) and I had to wait another year for his long-awaited arrival.

Harry Styles by Harry Styles has been officially out and ready for purchase for a year as of May 12, 2018, and he immediately went on tour in 2017 to promote and showcase all of his songs (along with a few other songs he had performed in the past with One Direction or others he wanted to perform for a long time). He hasn't been to Florida since the "Where We Are" Tour with One Direction in 2014, and when he announced his Sunrise show date, as you could assume, Florida went wild.

We have had fan projects in the works since January, and ticket prices have been fluctuating to be resold in an already sold-out arena for nearly a year. We have seen all the merchandise prices, watched the livestreams, learned the new songs (unreleased songs he has decided to perform for his tour only, "Medicine" and "Anna"), learned the songs he wrote for others but wanted to sing ("Just A Little Bit Of Your Heart" – as performed by Ariana Grande), and freaked out when we realized he would be performing some of the all-time favorite One Direction songs we all loved ("Stockholm Syndrome", "If I Could Fly", and "What Makes You Beautiful"). We had countdowns in our twitter names, group chats to meet with people at our shows, and scavenged for ways to attend more than one show.

When I received the notification that I would be seeing Harry Styles, one of my very best friends, my bubby, solo for the very first time in a week, my heart (basically) exploded. I couldn't wait to see him. I had been waiting so long and I wanted to finally be in presence – and I would be.

On June 7th, two days before our concert, my friend received a phone call from a charity that Harry partners with (Reverb) asking for her to be a volunteer on Saturday night. She would be receiving free parking, a free ticket, and she would be backstage for a part of the night in order to help prepare for the event later on in the evening prior to the concert. I immediately emailed our volunteer organizer and asked to be allowed to volunteer with her, as we would be driving together, and we would be at the show early. Without waiting more than twenty minutes, I had an email saying that I, too, had been accepted and we would be working the "Harry Styles: Live On Tour" event on Saturday.

We told no one. We have had issues on Twitter with a few girls in the past, and I didn't want anyone to ruin my experience of getting to go backstage for my very first solo Harry Styles concert.

Driving to Sunrise felt like forever. We had only slept four hours, and we had twenty-hour day ahead of us, but the adrenaline in my body would prevent me from even closing my eyes for more than a minute. We were able to make it to the venue early, went to the mall across the street (free parking until showtime!), grab early merchandise (I actually hate that I love spending money on Harry. I really shouldn't enjoy giving him my paycheck), do our hair and makeup (in the hallway of said mall), AND have a mini photo shoot at the venue with each other and friends all before we would have to check in with the volunteer organization at six in the afternoon.

When 5:45 P.M. rolled around, we knew we would have to start walking because we didn't want to be late and miss out on getting into the venue. We walked to the LaneOne ambassador (because as said earlier, girls we know – who aren't very nice – were there and we wanted to scope out what was happening) as asked where the security entrance was, walked around the entire general admission pit line to ask another security guard where the entrance was, only to find out that we would have to walk all the way around the arena and we wouldn't make it on time, so, I spoke to a security officer near the entrance line for general admission and he had someone take us on a golf cart to the entrance backstage.

We got to pass by Harry's tour buses on our way in, and the security guard driving us kept laughing because I almost dropped my phone with how horribly I was shaking.

We walked into the entrance, gave the man behind the counter our licenses, and our head volunteer organizer/leader walked out and gave us the wristbands that we would use to get around backstage and through the venue. I couldn't stop shaking and smiling and freaking out. Other volunteers were laughing because, as 50-year-old women, who would understand why two 18-year old girls are having panic attacks as they pass by their best friend and idol's stage equipment and nod past all of his tour managers that we've been hearing about since we were fifteen.

We took so many pictures.

We took pictures in front of every sign, videos of every backstage item we could. We took pictures in front of backdrops with his name on it and talked to really cute merchandise workers. I, sneakily, took pictures of the lines outside.

I honestly couldn't have felt happier.

Until our leader told us that because we had set up early, we would have an extra fifteen minutes to explore the venue before we would begin working. Only two minutes into this, my friend squeaked, "I think Harry is sound checking.", and ran to the nearest entrance into the arena. By hearing the opening chords to one of my favorite songs, I ran in behind her, and we listened to Harry soundcheck "Woman" by ourselves, in an empty arena.

His manager and security passed us, staff workers were laughing, a security guard for the venue smiled and told me, "You better not let anyone see you recording." and walked away. I can't even begin to describe how incredible and insane the experience was. I will never, ever forget it. It was incredible.

But, here is where the horror story begins.

Once 7 p.m. hit, the doors opened, and we began working. We worked until around 7:45 p.m. and talked to the head volunteer leader, Rachel, and we asked about our tickets (because part of the package of working with Reverb was that we would be gifted free tickets) and we found out that the tickets were not in a section we thought (we would have gladly taken them anyways, but we wanted to try and get pit!) so we asked if we could try and get down to the floor and she said "I totally understand why girls! Doesn't hurt to try!"

We saw a man with a "TREAT PEOPLE WITH KINDNESS" badge, and we decided to see if he could help us get pit tickets and wristbands. We explained everything to him – including that we had been volunteering and we hadn't bought pit tickets prior to the show because of the opportunity and we haven't seen him solo yet and we want the best experience possible – and made sure to include that although we would be getting seats even further from the stage (further from ones that were being sold, too) we had been there all day and still were not able to successfully buy general admission tickets and wristbands. He said that he would try to get us wristbands and to wait where we were. We waited nearly a half hour without his return until we decided to find someone else.

We found another man with the same badge and he informed us that he didn't have any wristbands to give (even though they were sitting in his shirt pocket). We went to Customer Service after this, very much discouraged because he very well could have helped us, and the other man never returned, and we spoke to a man who told us (with maybe one sentence – he wouldn't speak to us) that he can't do anything at all. While at the desk, two girls walked over to us and sold us two general admission tickets (one of which is a parking ticket that we were not made aware of), without wristbands. We walked to the section where the pit would be let in, and each of the guards at the beginning of each section (it was really well regulated) scanned our tickets and let us through, so we were under the impression we would be good to go.

When we got to the entrance of the pit, the woman worker saw the ticket and our "security" wristbands and began yelling at us that we were trying to sneak in. She then showed the ticket to a different security officer inside the pit, and he began screaming at me in front of nearly a dozen other people. I tried to explain that we bought the tickets and were working so we were not able to camp or queue and he said "I don't care. You can't come in anyways. You wasted your money."

Going on four hours of sleep on a thirty-hour day, why on earth would I have wasted my money? I have been waiting to see Harry Styles solo for a year. I have been counting down the days. Harry has never let me down – and I was infuriated.

We went to try and sit somewhere else, but had a feeling the two workers were going to watch us, so we left and tried to go talk to another person in a different section, and this particular woman was from Orlando (with big events such as this concert, they take staff from different arenas around the state) and said that she would escort us to general admission and explain what happened so we could go in. Meanwhile, Kacey Musgraves is almost done with her set, so we know we have very little time left. She walked us to a new section, explained what happened to a different security officer (who tried to help us as well) and when we were led to the general admission area, she herself was yelled at by a co-worker.

I actually felt heartbroken.

I only wanted to be inside and to see Harry. I didn't care where I sat at this point. 75 percent of the workers we spoke to were rude and unhelpful and didn't care about what we were saying. We started running to a new section and found two NEW workers that told us how sorry they were and if they could give us seats in their section, they would. However, that didn't help us because we were still without seats, now, we spent money on general admission, and we had missed the first forty-five minutes of the show.

We start running. Really running.

We made it to the part of the stage we wanted to be on, graciously found (better) seats, and was able to have the best time of my life.

Harry puts on an amazing show. He's such a powerful human being. He has such a stage presence and love that surrounds him. I honestly am in awe of him.

Harry Styles is one of my best friends, without a doubt, and I'm not shy to admit that. He really is. I was so scared I wouldn't be able to see him, or I would miss his set. But, we made it, and I saw my bubby perform his heart out.

He sang a few "oldies but goldies," as he so intelligently put it.

I sobbed, like a baby, during my favorite songs ("Sweet Creature" and "If I Could Fly"), teared up during "Ever Since New York", popped off to "Only Angel", "Woman", and "Kiwi", screamed until my lungs hurt during "What Makes You Beautiful", and had the best night of my life.

I honestly am so in love with Harry not only as a performer but as a person, as a human.

He brought out a pride flag (as he does with every concert) and wished everyone in the arena a "Happy Pride!". He encouraged us all to be whoever we would like to be in the room and to dance and sing our hearts out. He told us that he wouldn't get to do any of this without us and he asked "but they said no.".

He pointed out the "End Gun Violence" signs during "Sign Of The Times" (BB&T Center is only ten minutes from where the Parkland shooting occurred in February 2018) and everyone held up orange flashlights and signs to follow the theme of SOTT. He shouted, "yes, yes and yes!" We all started crying. It was so powerful.

When the concert ended, I actually felt my heart literally break. Harry Styles concerts are a place where you feel accepted and safe and secure and loved by everyone around you.

With Harry, with my concerts, with anything having to do with him (or Niall for that matter). I am completely myself.

I absolutely loved the concert, I loved Harry, I loved being backstage. I loved my experience being in Harry's presence and hearing my favorite songs sung live. I have the utmost love and respect and five stars aren't enough.

However, the staff and entire venue of the BB&T Center were not good and I won't be attending another concert there. Whoever I had a pleasant experience with wasn't even part of the BB&T staff, and that should say something about their standards, too.

But, what is important here, is that I got to see my best friend, Harry Styles, live! I got to see his concert, see him perform on a stage where he's most comfortable.

Harry, my bubby, thank you for one of the best nights of my life. I love you and I love "Self-Titled".

Here are my favorite pictures of the night!

(if you would like to see any of my other videos and pictures, follow me on twitter! @draggmedownn)

Caitlin Powers in front of BB&T Center SignLyssa Leisher

Harry Styles dancingCaitlin Powers


Caitlin Powers in front of Reverb counterLyssa Leisher

Harry Styles with a pride flag.Caitlin Powers

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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