Yesterday was the big day… I’m more or less going to tell it as it was.
Woke up at 6 so we could catch the bus at 7.45ish. Bought Pump at New World, lucky that they open early. Got on the bus and there wasn’t anyone else there. Genie was being annoying because she wasn’t talking to me, which was due to the fact that she was really tired. A couple more people got on the bus, the route wasn’t used very often judging by the fact that it didn’t have any buttons to push when you want to get off and that the bus was compelety empty when we got on. Got off the bus and found the entrance. However it looked more like a car entrance, there were security guards and stuff…. they just stood there as a crowd of ’bout 20 people started to build up. They told some people where to go so we decided to just follow. Took us around the corner of the wrong street and got to a dead end. Went back and decided to get the map out. Found the line. It was long, I think couldn’t exactly see the front. People running up and down the line asking if anyone had any spare tickets, handing out Lily Allen balloons, selling disposable cameras, concentrated Red Bull and giving away Streets Splice ice-cream. People all around us were smoking…. Surprisingly I didn’t find it overly annoying like my friends do, I think this is because I’ve grown up with it. Got in after waiting like 45 mins (to be honest I can’t remember how long we stood there.) Went through the gates without needing ID. Woo hoo. Found the PortaLoos first. This was the only time we decided to use them seeing as they were only going to get worse as the day progressed. Had to walk through the markets to get there and there was some interesting stuff on sale. First interesting thing we did was go on a ride, which was free. The one where you sit in a plane thingy and you go around and then you go up and down at the same time. That was fun. Then we went on a one the moves like a merry-go-round, you know, around and around but you sit in a circle thingy and it can turn upside down and stuff like a dryer. That was fun too. Then decided to get into the stadium where all the real action was taking place. Had a bit of a sit down and listened to Sinate who were playing on the orange stage… Shiver. They were scary and metaly. I saw these people: Shannon Baxter, Kimberly Annan, Chelsea Holdom, Kelsy Neicho, Toby Stewart, Andrew Rose and his friend Vaughn something (They weren’t all hanging out together). While sitting down we decided what was going to happen during the rest of the day. Got some sushi, I ate one piece because I didn’t feel like eating. When I was brushing my teeth before breakfast I vomited the only thing I had swallowed that day, which was water. I was too nervous and excited in the morning. Eskimo Joe started playing sometime during this, they were playing on the blue stage. Went and stood in another line to check in my bag so I didn’t need to hold it the whole day. I wasn’t very happy. Genie still wasn’t talking. Once my bag was in we went into the ”D” area which is the area directly in front of the stage. We got to hear the last few songs by Eskimo Joe and once they were finished we shuffled our way through to the front mosh pit area. I had Genie’s bag on my front ‘cos it had the stuff we wanted to get signed by MCR, they were signing at 6pm after they played and it was only 1pm. We were at the blue stage and next door playing on the orange stage was scary metaly band Trivium, which sounded like Sinate, in fact the only difference I heard was the lead singers’ accents. Sinate are from NZ, I think, and Trivium are from America (I think). Everyone around us were talking about My Chemical Romance who were playing in about 2 hours and 20 minutes on the stage that we were standing in front of. I guess everyone was like us, they wanted to see them so badly that they were willing to wait 2 hours so they could be in front when they performed. So after Trivium it was the Goodnight Nurse on the blue stage that we were on. When they started playing it was a pathetic reaction from the audience, well the audience around me. Everyone started getting all moshy and spazzy. Some random ‘tards decided to make a freaking death circle at a Goodnight Nurse performance. My favourite bit was the end (<—- example of a back handed comment.) The last song was “Death goes to Disco” and is the only song which I know all the words to, I’m not a big fan of NZ music. Once they finished the pushing and shoving got even worse as people tried getting in place for MCR. People actually screamed when the drum kit came out, it says The Black Parade. It’s a hard feeling to explain, being so close to strangers they completely surround you and they aren’t just standing next to you, they are actually constricting your breathing, squashing you. Blindspott were playing on the orange stage and by the time they finished the crowd in front of the blue stage, where me and Genie were, was going crazy. Everyone was sweaty/wet ’cos the security guards had kept spraying us during Goodnight Nurse and handing out bottles of water so the crowd didn’t dehydrate. I kept looking up to the stage just to make sure I would be able to see everyone in the band. Sadly, tall people moved into my view sometime before they came on stage but if I moved around a bit I could catch glimpses. THEY came out and they were great. I was a little distracted by the fact that I was more squashed than I had ever been in my entire life and was constantly wrestling the bag that didn’t want to stay up, ooo and all the people that we trying to break the impenatrable wall of hardcore fans ’cos they wanted to be at the front. People kept asking me if I was okay because according to Genie I looked distressed, I didn’t feel distressed. At one point a girl had fallen over which had caused a domino-like effect with everyone around her and there was a circle of people down on the ground which was littered with H2Go bottles that the sec. guards had handed out. I got to see every member of the band at least once (except Frank (guitarist) who had some sort of illness and went back home for an undisclosed amount of time apparently. They had a replacement, I don’t think anyone really payed attention to him though.) After the first couple of songs the crowd was getting pushy so Gerard asked everyone to move back a bit. No one did the first time but we did or tried to the second time. The thing was that as soon as there was space people would shove to get into it. My Chemical Romance are totally awesome live but like I said I wasn’t fully enjoying the experience. At the end of the last song Genie and I darted and weaved to get out to get to the signings early, it was only 4.10 but people weren’t allowed to start lining up until 5. I was thirsty because I didn’t take any water from the front so Genie went to get water and I went to the signings. I don’t know why but I waited for Genie, not at the line, but at the C4 tent. She came back and there were loads and loads of people wanting to get stuff signed and meet My Chem. It was like the mosh pit except people weren’t moving, just standing really closely together. This was when I got tomoto sauce on my shoe, some girl in front of me stood on a packet and it splurged out all over my foot. Somehow, goodness knows how, we moved ……………..
Novia took my cookie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! arghhhhhhh im angry now……….
(It was never Genie’s cookie.) Somehow, goodness knows how, we moved around to where the line actually became a line and not just a whole group of people. After about an hour of waiting someone came around and started handing out tickets. They were only going to let the first 300 people get stuffed signed. Hands were everywhere and Genie managed to get hers on one. Because there was some tall guy standing in front of her instead of pulling her hand in toward her wit
h the ticket she had to lift her arm up and then bring it down. As soon as she lifted her hand up about 5 hands attacked her from the back trying to get the ticket. There was a 15 second struggle and the ticket was ripped from her hands. BITCH! (I know it was a girl because there were like 3 guys there and all of them had a ticket.) Soon after that tickets ran out. Because you could only get things signed if you had a ticket we decided to leave and get something to eat, I hadn’t had lunch and didn’t have much of a breakfast because I felt like I wanted to vomit all morning. It was sometime past 6.00 by then. Grabbed a couple chicken burgers. Went back to see if how much of the line had gone down and if they were still signing. It took us 45mins to get the chicken burgers and there was still a bit of a line. At the corner where the barriers met the tent there was a small crowd taking pictures of the band. This reminded me of the tiger enclosure at Auckland Zoo. You can’t see anything from the front, the side is useless unless you have a pair of binoculars and the only place you can a decent look of the tiger is right in the corner and even then it’s not really worth however much you paid to get in. It was sad that we didn’t get things signed but it just goes to show that things are always too good to be true. Grabbed a Trumpet and ate it, still felt hungry after. Went to the stadium and listened to the Killers performing and watched the crowd watching the Killers, many of them going crazy. When they played one of their singles people every were singing, it was cool. At this point I was trying to convince Genie that we should catch the early bus ‘cos we weren’t going to do anything else. I hadn’t had any sort of conversation with her all day and she was being really short with me. I was pissed off. Nothing had really gone right and the build up was like a million times better than any sort of feeling that I actually had at the Big Day Out. Went out and found the bus stop. We finally started talking about how the day was/wasn’t a disappointment, was good/bad about it and what we should/shouldn’t have done. A bus had passed us earlier that was the right route number but the bus driver said he wasn’t going to Khyber Pass which is where the bus we needed to get on would be going and it was like half an hour early anyway so it wasn’t the right bus. We waited and waited and then I saw the bus and it was coming up on the other side of the road, we were at the wrong bus stop. We ran after it but we were too late. It was decided then that we were going to have to take a taxi home because we would have had to wait 2 hours for the next one to arrive. It was some price under $40 and dropped us outside school because I couldn’t be bothered to direct him to our house. He was a good driver ‘cos he knew where he was going at least. Our dad picked us up and we finally got to see Docie who had been camping all week and we exchanged stories on the way home.
So overall the day was a disappointing wait for something that ruined by fucktards and lack of any decent human conversation.