The Manchester Weekend part 1

Claire

Jun 28

A chance remark and a relatives Facebook post lead to one of the busiest, craziest weekends making unforgettable memories with my teen.

Sitting at the dinner table talking music one evening he stated 'I love Alicia Keys, I'd love to see her in concert'. I already knew this and had looked last year when her tour was announced but the tickets had sold out within half an hour ! However, my mum went online and discovered Ticketmaster had some returns being sold at face value, expensive but she offered to buy them as an early birthday present.

He was ecstatic, the plan was to travel into Manchester early on the Saturday morning, a day of sightseeing, then the concert in the evening and the train home. Busy but doable, that was until a relative asked if we wanted 2 Ed Sheeran tickets, it was the Friday evening (same weekend) also in Manchester. Well you can't say no but I was supposed to be working until 5.30pm and had to be at the concert at 6pm. That was impossible, so a quick phone call to the boss and I was finishing at 3.30, that's when the planning began. Less than 4 days to organise everything.

First I found a hotel, The Hilton at Old Trafford cricket ground, so the plan was changed. Drive to Manchester, drop the car and bag off, jump in a taxi to the concert. Then drive home on Saturday evening after the second concert.

Bag packed on Thursday and everything organised for a quick turnaround. I finished work at 3.30, was home by 3.45, clothes changed, then bag, boy and coffee in the car and on the road by 4.15.

Manchester is around 45 minute drive, although Friday traffic slowed us down a little. The glorious weather made the journey there pleasant and was perfect for watching an outdoor concert. The pre-show concert Maisie Peters, began at 6.30 just as we arrived at the stadium. We quickly found our seats, great view as the stage was in the centre of the football pitch with screens all around. An hour later and the stage was cleared, a large round screen came down and surrounded the stage and a 10 minute countdown began. The anticipation grew.

The show began, it was amazing ! One man, a guitar and a loop station. Wow. What a show it was, fireworks, fire, lots of dancing and singing (me). The 2 hours went quickly and it was over. Sadly, we left along with 60,000 other people and walked into Manchester city centre to find a taxi back to the hotel. It was 11pm when we got back, but our night didn't end there. As we walked into our room we could see flashing lights so went out onto the balcony. The hotel overlooked the cricket ground and it was being set up for a different concert The Killers, the following evening. We watched them testing the lights for about half an hour then headed off to bed, hoarse but happy.

To be continued ......

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