A couple of weekends ago I got to enjoy Bryan Adams in concert at the Kent County Cricket Ground (or to give it its official name The Spitfire Ground St. Lawrence) in Canterbury. It was an unexpected day and evening thanks to one of my friends from school, who I'm sure wouldn't mind me describing her as a Bryan Adams super fan, inviting me and another old school friend to join her and her husband at the concert.
My friend, being the huge fan that she is, ensured we got right to the front for a stage side view but this didn't come without a lot of advance preparation. We left Maidstone at 11.30am to get to Canterbury (the concert didn't start until 7.45pm) but it was important to get there early to suss out the venue and work out the best route to the front and that meant being one of the first in the queue to get in.
As is often the case with big events parking at venues can be tricky, my friend though used a site called justpark.com (I'd never heard of it) but it seems like the perfect solution to parking woes. Basically you can find, pre-book and pay for your parking spot from someone registered with the site, then once done you just turn up, park and get on with your day (or night). My friend got a very good price for her days parking, looking at the site since and typing in a location the prices do seem to vary so I assume it's the individual who selects their price. We were parked in someone's private drive but I guess it could be anywhere where there are available private parking spaces. In our case we didn't even have to let the person know we'd arrived, we just parked and then went on our way. Such a simple idea but so clever and incredibly useful!
As Canterbury isn't that far from where we live we got there in plenty of time but for my friend that was, of course, the whole point in order to ensure the best possible spot for the concert. After a bit of a scout of the cricket ground we had some lunch in the café in the grounds. Other than the crew and the people working in the café we were the only people there. It was a nice day though (thank goodness) so we sat out on the terrace looking across the cricket ground and tucked into sandwiches and drank our tea and coffee, very sophisticated.
After that we loitered around for awhile and then, after discovering there was already a bit of a queue to get in, we joined it. Yes this was incredibly early, the gates didn't open until 5pm, but even though it was still early afternoon there were already about thirteen people ahead of us, and do you know what? It was actually fun queuing all that time! I never imagined it could be but with everyone there sharing a common passion the time went surprisingly fast. We filled the time chatting, playing car journey games, people watching and even playing a quiz game (my one friend being super prepared and bringing along a set of quiz questions) with those near us in the queue and soon enough it was finally time to go in.
When the gates opened the strategy and tactics my friend had worked out came into play. Our friend had already given us instructions that we weren't to bring bags as searching them delayed entry so all we had on us were our purses and phones. I don't remember the last time I went out with so little. But it all paid off as I said and we got in and right to the front of the venue right by the stage. Of course it's not easy maintaining that good a spot but between us all we managed to keep it in-between trips to the toilets, for drinks or something to eat. As for the concert that was brilliant, I'm certainly not as massive a fan as my friend is but I knew the vast majority of songs that he sang and even those I didn't were not difficult to enjoy. He certainly knows how to entertain his fans and really seems to appreciate them too which made all that queuing etc. even more worthwhile.
My friend, being the huge fan that she is, ensured we got right to the front for a stage side view but this didn't come without a lot of advance preparation. We left Maidstone at 11.30am to get to Canterbury (the concert didn't start until 7.45pm) but it was important to get there early to suss out the venue and work out the best route to the front and that meant being one of the first in the queue to get in.
As is often the case with big events parking at venues can be tricky, my friend though used a site called justpark.com (I'd never heard of it) but it seems like the perfect solution to parking woes. Basically you can find, pre-book and pay for your parking spot from someone registered with the site, then once done you just turn up, park and get on with your day (or night). My friend got a very good price for her days parking, looking at the site since and typing in a location the prices do seem to vary so I assume it's the individual who selects their price. We were parked in someone's private drive but I guess it could be anywhere where there are available private parking spaces. In our case we didn't even have to let the person know we'd arrived, we just parked and then went on our way. Such a simple idea but so clever and incredibly useful!
As Canterbury isn't that far from where we live we got there in plenty of time but for my friend that was, of course, the whole point in order to ensure the best possible spot for the concert. After a bit of a scout of the cricket ground we had some lunch in the café in the grounds. Other than the crew and the people working in the café we were the only people there. It was a nice day though (thank goodness) so we sat out on the terrace looking across the cricket ground and tucked into sandwiches and drank our tea and coffee, very sophisticated.
After that we loitered around for awhile and then, after discovering there was already a bit of a queue to get in, we joined it. Yes this was incredibly early, the gates didn't open until 5pm, but even though it was still early afternoon there were already about thirteen people ahead of us, and do you know what? It was actually fun queuing all that time! I never imagined it could be but with everyone there sharing a common passion the time went surprisingly fast. We filled the time chatting, playing car journey games, people watching and even playing a quiz game (my one friend being super prepared and bringing along a set of quiz questions) with those near us in the queue and soon enough it was finally time to go in.
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| Checking out the venue from the café, just us and the ground staff at this point |
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| A little later and we weren't the only ones waiting for the concert to start - luckily we had great weather! |
When the gates opened the strategy and tactics my friend had worked out came into play. Our friend had already given us instructions that we weren't to bring bags as searching them delayed entry so all we had on us were our purses and phones. I don't remember the last time I went out with so little. But it all paid off as I said and we got in and right to the front of the venue right by the stage. Of course it's not easy maintaining that good a spot but between us all we managed to keep it in-between trips to the toilets, for drinks or something to eat. As for the concert that was brilliant, I'm certainly not as massive a fan as my friend is but I knew the vast majority of songs that he sang and even those I didn't were not difficult to enjoy. He certainly knows how to entertain his fans and really seems to appreciate them too which made all that queuing etc. even more worthwhile.
The day and evening were great fun. Although we all kept in touch whilst I was away it has been lovely reconnecting with old friends since we got back from Singapore and this day was fantastic fun and one I really appreciated with some of my oldest friends. I also honestly never realised queuing with like minded people with a common love could be so entertaining and that you could bond over something like that so easily with strangers. As I said it was an unexpected day and evening but honestly was brilliant and I'd happily do it again. If she's reading this I have to say special thanks to my lovely friend for thinking of me and inviting me along to share the experience.
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