Queuing time and stages?

[Bauk]

Hey everyone,

I've got a question for those who have visited a show recently. I'm wondering what the stadium looks like: is there a C-stage in the back? And if so, were there people standing at the C-stage gates very early on? Or did most fans spread around the catwalk and B-stage. Also, can anybody tell me how many hours before the show the stadium really filled up? 

I'm asking, because I'm pregnant and I'm not sure what time we'll get in the stadium. At this point I have standing tickets, but I'm trying to swap them for seating tickets. If I can't make this work, I want to go anyway, but I would like to know a little bit about what time I have to be there in order to still have a decent view. I don't want to be in the middle of the crowd with my babybelly 🙂

Normally, I'm one of those people who start queuing early in the morning, but since I'm 7 months pregnant when the band plays Frankfurt, this is no longer an option for me 😉 Thanks for your replies!

[Captain Crieff]

On 6/6/2022 at 2:57 PM, Bauk said:

Hey everyone,

I've got a question for those who have visited a show recently. I'm wondering what the stadium looks like: is there a C-stage in the back? And if so, were there people standing at the C-stage gates very early on? Or did most fans spread around the catwalk and B-stage. Also, can anybody tell me how many hours before the show the stadium really filled up? 

I'm asking, because I'm pregnant and I'm not sure what time we'll get in the stadium. At this point I have standing tickets, but I'm trying to swap them for seating tickets. If I can't make this work, I want to go anyway, but I would like to know a little bit about what time I have to be there in order to still have a decent view. I don't want to be in the middle of the crowd with my babybelly 🙂

Normally, I'm one of those people who start queuing early in the morning, but since I'm 7 months pregnant when the band plays Frankfurt, this is no longer an option for me 😉 Thanks for your replies!

There is a C stage yes.

on the previous European tour, you could get barrier at the C stage very easily even after the hardcore queuers had entered. Everyone runs to the runway (ha) and B stage. In Amsterdam I even got in during the support act (it was a VERY last minute gig for me) and we ended up on the second row on the back side of the C stage. Not the best view ever, but I could see and things also never get pushy there normally, which I suppose is interesting for you 🙂 

So I'd say if you're able to arrive around the time the doors open, maybe 15-30 minutes before, you should be able to get front row on the C stage.

[Bauk]

Thanks! 🙂  That sounds good and reassuring. 

[MosesTheMarshmallow]

In case you're curious, I attended in Chicago, arrived at about 3 or 4 PM and was 2nd row by the runway, 🙂 not too far from the front! 

[Sar740]

Interested to find out how the priority entrance tickets impact  on being able to get to the front. Will it mean despite queuing all day we will have no chance ?

[Captain Crieff]

They are clearly selling a lot more early entry tickets on this tour than on the previous one, it seems to be at least 30-40% more, if not more. In 2016/2017 you could easily get front row B stage if you were among the first GA to enter the stadium, this year you have to get lucky to find 40cm of free barrier space. It sucks. The front row is almost entirely filled with rich folks (and of course some big fans that fork out €200+ to have a guaranteed front row spot), and those who queued from 7-8 am are often on the second or even third row.

I know this stuff is the promotor's decision and probably not the band's but still... I didn't mind early entry on the AHFOD tour because it was still pretty easy to get a spot as good as those with early entry but now it has become almost impossible. And €230 or whatever it is is just not a sum of money a normal person can pay for a concert these days.

I was lucky to get barrier on the two standing gigs I went to this year but I feel like I've used all my luck now and won't be able to see my beloved barrier again next year RIP

(PS the reason I care so much about getting barrier isn't because I want to touch them or so it's because I'm literally a metre and a half tall lmao) 

[Martin1994]

I was at Wembley on Saturday (20th) and it didn’t fill up to the back where the C stage is until nearer the start of the gig.

 

Regarding early entry tickets, I asked a couple of the stewards and they both said there were 1000 tickets. This looked like it equated to basically the first couple of rows in front of the stage/catwalk/b-stage.

 

I had an early entry ticket and started queueing at around 10:30am. What surprised me was that the vast majority of people didn’t actually start queueing until around 3:30pm onwards ready for entry at 4:30pm. Priority check-in opened at 1:30pm and I reckon by that point there were maybe only 100 people in the queue. The GA was obviously much longer by that point.

[Joni89]

On 8/22/2022 at 9:55 AM, Martin1994 said:

I was at Wembley on Saturday (20th) and it didn’t fill up to the back where the C stage is until nearer the start of the gig.

 

Regarding early entry tickets, I asked a couple of the stewards and they both said there were 1000 tickets. This looked like it equated to basically the first couple of rows in front of the stage/catwalk/b-stage.

 

I had an early entry ticket and started queueing at around 10:30am. What surprised me was that the vast majority of people didn’t actually start queueing until around 3:30pm onwards ready for entry at 4:30pm. Priority check-in opened at 1:30pm and I reckon by that point there were maybe only 100 people in the queue. The GA was obviously much longer by that point.

I personally think that promoters should make it clear how many early tickets are available.

I’m going to the Cardiff show in June.

[Joni89]

Does anyone know if there are long queues for the ‘infinity tickets’ as they would need to be collected on the day of the event? 

[Liam]

On 4/21/2023 at 7:52 PM, Joni89 said:

I personally think that promoters should make it clear how many early tickets are available.

I’m going to the Cardiff show in June.

I'm going to Cardiff as well, would be handy if we knew how many early tickets were available for it 

[Martin1994]

1 hour ago, Liam said:

I'm going to Cardiff as well, would be handy if we knew how many early tickets were available for it 

I'm going to two Manchester dates (again early entry) and I've been told there's 800 early entry tickets for those gigs, so I'd say 800-900 would be a good guess for the Cardiff gigs.

After my experience at Wembley, it's disheartening because there will be people queuing all day with GA tickets hoping to get to the barrier, unaware of early entry tickets making it unlikely they'll be able to get right to the front. At least these only account for the first couple of rows, but it's bad that if you want to get to the barrier you've got to pay extra for the early access.

[Liam]

On 5/26/2023 at 9:23 PM, Martin1994 said:

I'm going to two Manchester dates (again early entry) and I've been told there's 800 early entry tickets for those gigs, so I'd say 800-900 would be a good guess for the Cardiff gigs.

After my experience at Wembley, it's disheartening because there will be people queuing all day with GA tickets hoping to get to the barrier, unaware of early entry tickets making it unlikely they'll be able to get right to the front. At least these only account for the first couple of rows, but it's bad that if you want to get to the barrier you've got to pay extra for the early access.

Yeah it is a bit of a joke, There are many many die hard coldplay fans who just simply cant afford the Early entry tickets so have to queue for hours and hours to get near the front

[Joni89]

On 5/28/2023 at 7:30 AM, Liam said:

Yeah it is a bit of a joke, There are many many die hard coldplay fans who just simply cant afford the Early entry tickets so have to queue for hours and hours to get near the front

An interesting development is some performers e.g. Beyonce offering ‘side riser’ tickets directly on the side of the stage. The prices were over £2k!

[chewiw]

Hi! In Barcelona I can tell that the queue for early entry tickets was HUGE! I thought it was around 500 800 people... crazy. I saw people attending at 14h -hour of check in- and their faces when they saw the crazy queue before them...

But I got to the front row and I can say that people just moved around and there was front row left for the non-early entry ticket holders, and for sure 2nd row on certain spots (B side stage is completely full and also the full corridor on both sides). 

Some advice, at least from Barcelona perspective, bring something to eat, because when we checked in at 14h they took you to a place not inside the venue but with your ticket already checked so you can´t get out again, even to go for food. There are bathrooms inside and water stations but no food places. 

 

[Liam]

On 6/3/2023 at 3:59 PM, chewiw said:

Hi! In Barcelona I can tell that the queue for early entry tickets was HUGE! I thought it was around 500 800 people... crazy. I saw people attending at 14h -hour of check in- and their faces when they saw the crazy queue before them...

But I got to the front row and I can say that people just moved around and there was front row left for the non-early entry ticket holders, and for sure 2nd row on certain spots (B side stage is completely full and also the full corridor on both sides). 

Some advice, at least from Barcelona perspective, bring something to eat, because when we checked in at 14h they took you to a place not inside the venue but with your ticket already checked so you can´t get out again, even to go for food. There are bathrooms inside and water stations but no food places. 

 

ok thank you! We are just going to decide tomorrow morning when we are queuing,it’s looking likely that we might head for the C stage as by looking at photos of the concert today it looks like not many people notice it and all head for the front row of the B stage 

[Liam]

I posted this in my topic but thought i'd share it here too

 

So little update, We got to the queue at 11am, there was about 6 people there before us but all in our different rows at the gate, when the gates opened at 5pm (15 minutes after Early/VIP entry) we walked really fast and we could of been 2nd/3rd row along the walk way, B stage barrier was already 5 or 6 rows deep! so we decided to head for the C stage, and we got on the barrier there! Glad we did because we got to be really up close and they  performed on that stage! Next time we may try and get close to the B stage though! oh and there was 500 VIP tickers for early entry if thats any help to anyone (We asked the security at the gate)