[2017-10-08] Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, CA

[AMDB9]

Good morning. We’re very pleased to announce the first 2017 North American shows for the A Head Full Of Dreams Tour – including the band’s first Canadian shows in five years. The dates are as follows:

 

Sun Oct 08 – San Diego, CA – Qualcomm Stadium

 

 

 

Tickets go on general sale on Saturday, Oct 15 at 10am local time, apart from Montreal (Oct 15, 12noon) and Miami (Oct 21, 10am).

[LVI56]

Scored a floor seat in fan pre-sale, B6 Row 3, pretty much right next to B-stage. $251 for a single ticket is pretty steep!

 

Looks like the fan presale was getting tickets in B3 and B6 area, Citi presale was getting mid-to-back of A6 and A3

[iduran20]

This was so stressful. :wreck: But I got two seats in B3 Row 10 so next to the B-Stage as well. They were definitely very expensive! :bigcry: Although I would have a blast even far away...this stadium is enormous!!

[iduran20]

Dang some just came up in Floor A7 row 23 but they're more off to the side...and I'm pretty close to the B stage now...ahhh what to do...

 

Edit: Now Floor A8 Row 8. So there are definitely many still available for those still looking.

[quizzy65]

I got

 

Section F12 Row 24.

 

Is this a good viewing angle? I have never been to a concert or this stadium?

[ahiru]

There are still seem to be great single seats as well as pairs of seats on the floor using both the fan club code and citi code. First time going to this venue for me as well. Now just have to figure out where to stay and the whole parking situation. At least I have a year to figure is out :P

[LVI56]

This stadium doesn't hold concerts very often, so it's hard to say what views will be like.

 

In regards to parking, the stadium has its own trolly station for the Green line. I think the line runs until about midnight, and maybe they will add a couple extra trains for the event. Probably way cheaper than parking at the stadium.

[ahiru]

This stadium doesn't hold concerts very often, so it's hard to say what views will be like.

 

In regards to parking, the stadium has its own trolly station for the Green line. I think the line runs until about midnight, and maybe they will add a couple extra trains for the event. Probably way cheaper than parking at the stadium.

 

Good to know. Thanks for the tip. I read that for Chargers games, some people park at a mall (will have to find it later) and then take the trolly. I wonder if that's safe to do. I do that in Costa Mesa and I haven'y had a problem yet, but I don't want to leave a show and find out my car got towed. Hopefully I can find a cheap hotel near by that I can just walk to a trolly station.

[ahiru]

Just noticed that you can pick your own seats now on Ticketmaster (I was curious where exactly I was sitting) and noticed that C Stage seems to be off to the side and not completely surrounded by seats. I wonder if they're going to allow fans to run up to the stage? I mean, that's a pretty large area.

 

[ATTACH=full]6154[/ATTACH]

[Lynn Weibel]

Anyone have a pre-sale code they'd share with me?? Please???

[Audie Dancel]

Does anyone of you guys have still a presale code available? I've been subscribed with coldplay.com since 2011 now, and didn't get a pre code? I was really hoping to see them because they are truly one of my favorites! PLEASE PLEASE! I NEED HELP! I NEED A CODE THAT STILL HAS 2 TICKETS AVAILABLE! THIS WOULD MEAN THE WORLD TO ME!!!

[coldplayisawesome]

guess who just bought tickets? ;)

[Nie]

guess who just bought tickets? ;)

Hmm

 

Congrats! [emoji16]

[AmanUma25]

Hey everyone! Just curious if there's a way to hang with you or any other peeps who are going to this one. I bought a ticket for myself near C-Stage and I'll be traveling to San Diego and wanted to see if I could make some friends along the way!

[coldplayisawesome]

only a few more days left, ahhhhh!!!!

[coldplayisawesome]

[MEDIA=twitter]915684820197535745[/MEDIA]

Mobile Link: https://twitter.com/coldplay/status/915684820197535745

 

 

!!

[oldiefan]

http://coldplay.com/coldplay-to-debut-new-song-for-estamos-unidos-mexicanos-concert/

This is fabulous news. Thanks Coldplay for your generosity.

[BiggerStronger]

Looks like Coldplay are trying out new "zoned" Xylobands for this show, everybody got a wristband taped to their seat instead of receiving it at the gate.

 

for reference:

[I ran away]

I t

Looks like Coldplay are trying out new "zoned" Xylobands for this show, everybody got a wristband taped to their seat instead of receiving it at the gate.

 

for reference:

I think they displayed the colours of the flag of Mexico that way during Life Is Beautiful :)

[coldplayisawesome]

it's only been five months, why not post this now? :P

 

Adventure of a 2017-time

 

 

Disclaimer: This is long and most of it is not about the concert itself, but so much happened to me in the weekend involving my trip to see Coldplay that I think to do the story full justice, we need to go ~back to the start~

 

 

 

It was a dream when I first thought it up back in August - too difficult for me to get to any of the 2017 Coldplay concerts remotely near my current location of Philadelphia, I said, "Geez if it's gonna be this much of a hassle, I may as well fly across the country to see them." But it was a dream that I made a reality.

 

Pieces started to line up. San Diego, the final AHFOD concert in the U.S., was two days before my 25th birthday. San Diego, the place where my father grew up, would be my first time stepping foot in California. Although my mom, my three younger sisters and myself are all from NY, my parents and youngest sister Lara live in Arizona now. They talked about driving out there so my dad could visit his hometown for the first time in about 26 years and so that we could see each other in person for the first time in 2.5 years (since they moved).

 

I found cheap enough flight tickets, a cheap enough hotel room, and the concert tickets... you know, for Coldplay in the U.S., those are never cheap, not even for nosebleeds, which is what I bought. :P Everything came together so quickly and perfectly. I knew this would be an opportunity I couldn't let pass me.

 

Two of the greatest friends I've ever had expressed interest in going, too. I met them both through the Coldplay fandom about eight years ago now, but have only met one of them in person once. Back when we made the plans, only Dianna was able to actually go. It seemed the three of us would not yet have the chance to meet at the same time.

 

For the next 1.5 months, it still felt like a dream. I had a lot of other crazy things happen in my life that made it seem like something was sure to go wrong here...

 

Then, one week prior to the concert, I got an email. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Dianna was unable to make it to the concert with me. After all this time, it seemed we would still not get to meet in person. However, this presented another opportunity: my youngest sister, who is the most like me in terms of personality, looks, and fondness for Coldplay compared to my other two sisters, could attend in Dianna's place!

 

Both of my other sisters have been to at least one concert with me, but for Lara this would be her first time seeing Coldplay live. My parents were willing to stay late on Sunday to give Lara the chance to go, driving back to Arizona immediately after we got back from the concert so that Lara would not miss much school the next day.

 

So it was set. Lara would go with me to see Coldplay. We didn't tell her until the night before. She had an even harder time than I did believing this was real.

 

Of course, I wasn't the only one to plan a wild trip flying far from home just to see Coldplay. Another longtime Coldplayer friend of mine, April, was going to fly all the way from Australia to attend the California concerts. Even though I wouldn't meet Dianna this time around, I would get to meet April.

 

After fifteen hours of travel from Friday into Saturday (half of that spent waiting overnight in the Baltimore airport), I landed in a world I hadn't seen: San Diego, California. Seriously, it was so weird but cool to see palm trees everywhere. California has such a different feel to anything on the east coast and I honestly love it. My parents and Lara picked me up from the airport and we spent some time at Mission Beach, then just hung out for most of the afternoon.

 

But let's get to the good stuff. Obviously, I'm a seasoned Coldplayer. I may not have as detailed insider knowledge as some people, but I know the basics. Roadies upgrade people in the shitty seats, Ben comes out early in the afternoon to grab people for the intro video. What more do I need to know?

 

 

I originally wanted to get to the venue around noon. We ended up not getting there until about 1:30pm, but I didn't mind. I'd had a feeling that just going with the flow would be the right way to approach the day. Besides, there was hardly anyone around yet by the time we did get there. Lara and I met a woman called Lynne, who told us that she had been picked to do the intro video in Portland, the only concert where the video ended up not being shown because of the Las Vegas and Tom Petty tributes. So, she was very eager to find Ben and I guess convince him that she should get to do the video this time around?

 

Well, we also ran into three other people and the whole lot of us walked back to the area where the roadies go into the stadium. Which I don’t think I’ll ever do again, that was definitely starting to push the limits for me. But it did mean that the band drove right past us when they came in. I don’t know where they went to actually get into the stadium and we barely realized they were coming up until they were already right next to us. All I could make out through tinted glass was the silhouette of the top of Jonny’s head, from his sunglass to his hat. But that happened.

 

At about 3:30pm, with no sign of Ben whatsoever, Lynne decided to call it quits. The other three people had already left before that. Lara and I split and went to just walk around the outside of the venue a bit more. We stopped by the merch stand outside and Lara bought a keychain and poster – something we should have waited for, but more on that later.

 

Approaching 4pm, soundcheck had apparently started, though we couldn’t hear it from where we were standing because the radio station tents were playing music pretty loudly. April was at the venue already, so Lara and I set about to find her. We walked right past where she was sitting outside of Gate B and I heard her shout, “BROOKE!” We hugged and she gave me a bunch of chocolate from Australia (a birthday gift) that Lara and I tried to eat very quickly as it was melting fast and they wouldn’t have let us bring it into the stadium anyway.

 

 

We listened to the rest of soundcheck, then just hung out for a while. April brought out this Australian flag she had with her, which a security officer standing at the gate mentioned to us that she would not being able to bring in, nor would I be able to bring my Mylo doll. Well, that didn’t seem right. We decided to walk around to another gate instead to see if the security officers there would be more lenient. I asked another person about the doll, but it wasn’t a firm no. April convinced me to try anyway. She hid her flag in her pants in an attempt to smuggle it in. We got in line and waited for doors to open.

 

The person who was at the metal detector we went up to stopped April because of the poster she had brought with her. Apparently, it was a venue policy to not let posters in? Well, that really sucked, because it meant that Lara couldn’t bring in her poster either, the one she had just bought outside the venue. We had to rent a locker for her to keep it in. $20 to hold a $5 poster. We honestly should have just ditched it and bought another one… hell, we could have bought 4 for that price.

 

But I got through just fine. The funny thing about writing this out is it sounds so calm, but it was really hectic in the moment. April found out that after attempting to smuggle in her flag, they wouldn’t let her in with a poster. I followed and asked the guy if I could bring the doll in. He looked at it, looked at some sheet he had, then said it was fine. I WAS SO RELIEVED. I’ve brought Mylo to basically every concert I’ve been to, except the very first one… which was in 2009 (even then I had puppets of the band with me instead, which you can read about in my VIVA concert review). So, I was very glad, but then of course my sister couldn’t get in either because of her poster. I spotted her some cash and sent her off with April. It was a little nerve-wrecking being separated from the 16-year-old I was responsible for. Lara came back alone, having gotten a locker. April once again attempted to sneak in her poster, which worked this time. She just folded it up and kept it under her arm. Security, am I right?

 

Well, while I was waiting for them, I got my LoVe button from the person handing them out in front of the gate. Another blue one! I had worn my original LoVe button to the venue but pinned it to Mylo. I wore this new blue one, asked the lady if I could have another one for my doll. She said it was only one per person, but then later, while I was still waiting for my sister and April, she came back over to me and handed me another one!

 

Eventually, the three of us reunited. I asked the button lady about where we could get the Xylobands from, which she did not know at all. April said that she heard they were on the seats instead. Makes sense, this was going to be televised in some capacity, so they would want to make sure everyone has one.

 

April and I had already talked about wanting to get upgraded, April especially so she wouldn’t have to spend the last concert on her trip sitting by herself in subpar seats. Neither of us were expecting it or holding our breath, of course, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t walk around the venue intent on finding a roadie to show off around. As I had suspected, the ground floor proved mostly fruitless in this case - although Lara and I did get another LoVe button each from the guy handing out red ones. We didn’t even ask, he just stopped us as we were walking by and, seeing that we only had blue ones, handed us a red one each. This day was just getting crazier by the second!

 

After circling around one full time, I suggested we go up to where the nosebleed seats are – if nothing else, Lara and I could find where our section was. We went up an escalator all the way to the top. As we walked, Lara expressed interest in buying a pretzel. As she was up at the register, April pointed out to me that there was someone standing at the entrance to the seats right by where we were.

 

Lara came back over to us with her pretzel and I promptly directed her to a table full of condiments on the other side of the walkway, where not only did we have a clear view of the roadie… he had a clear view of us. The three of us stood there chatting as Lara ate her pretzel. At one point, I swore I saw him look over at us. Eventually, once he was done talking to whoever he was talking to, he came out to the walkway. I think he then got stopped by a few other women who were out there, but was standing right next to us. We stayed where we were and stalled. Still talking to the others, he mentioned our outfits at one point. It was so clear that he wanted to talk to us, we just tried to play it cool.

 

 

We finally got to talk to him. A few other Coldplayers April was in contact with came up and were speaking to him – they had all met before (and he thought he had met me before as well, but I definitely haven’t met enough Coldplay roadies in my life to forget having met any of them!). His name was Chris, a really chill guy who told us about how great his day had been. He said they had a knighting earlier in the day for the roadies – April and I looked to each other, “Didn’t they do that in the VIVA era also?” – and he told us how excited he was for the bottle of champagne and cheesecake he had in his hotel room. Throughout the conversation, he was radioing another roadie and I was trying to contain my excitement.

 

He told us he had three tickets to upgrade us. He ran through the usual questions, although we obviously knew them – How many albums are there? How many band members? What are Chris’s kid’s names? (really, this was one of the questions) – and then took our old tickets. As if it wasn’t exciting enough to get to meet April, or exciting enough to be upgraded for the second time in my life, we were getting upgraded together. For the first time, I would see Coldplay with another hardcore Coldplayer!!

 

 

We thanked Chris endlessly, took a couple of pictures with him, then set off to find our new seats. Row 3, seats 1-3. We would be right by the barrier, meaning we would be allowed to stand at the barrier. WE WOULD BE AT THE BARRIER. THE BARRIER RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE MAIN STAGE. And we would be on Jonny’s side, meaning front row seats for all the Buckin goodness, of which there was PLENTY. Technically, only the first two seats in the rows are allowed to stand at the barrier, but April convinced the security person who gave us our barrier wristbands (different from the floor wristbands) to let all three of us stand there.

 

And then there was not much to do but wait… I couldn’t believe that I was here again, at the front row of a Coldplay concert after having had the cheapest seats walking into the venue. Alina Baraz played, then Tove Lo. We saw Miller come out and take pics during the opening acts, saw Phil come out to the stage with some people who must have won some kind of meet and greet. After Tove Lo left, we took our places at the barrier. It was almost time.

 

The roadies came out. Matt McGinn started jammin’ a bit of Hell’s Bells by AC/DC. The roadies did their work, left the stage, the lights went down. O Mio Babbino played. Love from Los Angeles was sent to us in San Diego. Charlie Chaplin spoke about the power of the people. Our boys came out to see us.

 

And do you think I took that many pics or video? I wanted to take some, because I have very little from when I got to see them front row in the MX era. I left the stadium that night with still very few pictures or video, but that’s OK. That’s what other people are for! :P

 

Now, unfortunately it’s been so long since the concert itself that a lot of the little details are gone from my memory, but I have a few key moments that have stuck behind:

• Chris playing guitar, spinning around and nearly bumping into Jonny, then making a playful pouty face at him as they were on the ramp
  
• Chris hugging Jonny at the end of SJLT, singing the final line, “I want something just like this” while patting him on the back with each word (come on, now – btw April and I both looked at each other after this)
  
• Chris SPITTING ON THE RAMP during Hymn for the Weekend. The most bizarre thing I’ve ever witnessed. He was coming back to main stage from the ramp and just spit as he was going and I saw it with my own two eyes
  

And we got to hear Life is Beautiful for the first time. A truly remarkable thing to hear live from such a short distance.

 

After the show, roadie Chris came back out and gave us each a setlist! My Very First Coldplay Setlist. We stayed back as long as we could before security urged us to head out, I stuffed every pocket I had with confetti, and my sister and I bid April farewell.

 

Then when we got back to the hotel I checked Twitter to find that I had been onscreen during the live stream of Adventure of a Lifetime. What a day.

 

And, well, sorry this isn’t much for a review of the actual concert, but I felt like I needed to get my story down of my whole experience around the concert. It was such an incredible night and is definitely in the books as one of the best nights of my life. Huge thanks to roadie Chris, to April, to my sister and my parents, and most of all, to our boys. It seriously wouldn’t have happened without you. <3