Covid has affected many things, one of those being concerts. Almost all concerts in 2020 were cancelled and/or moved to 2021. Although Covid is still a threat, most people have been vaccinated and more events are allowed to be on, with Covid safety rules, of course. To get to London I went by train, in the subways masks were mandatory, however, although the majority were wearing them, a few people were not.

 

On entrance to Ally Pally, everyone was asked to present proof of a negative Covid test. However, as I presented mine, they barely even looked, so who knows how many people really were Covid negative ?

 

After this, as I was early, I got into the ‘front of crowd’ line. Everyone in the line gave at least half a metre between the people next to them. The social distancing measures were not even being recommended, so it must be engrained into our behaviour !

 

 Although we were all perfectly happy with our socially distanced line, there was not enough room for anyone else to join the queue, so we were asked to bunch up.

 

A security guard told us “You’re all Covid safe, you can bunch up to make more room!”. Everyone did as we were asked and the queue size was almost doubled.

 

“You’re all Covid safe, you can bunch up to make more room!” - Security guard, telling people in the line to make more room.

 

In the Ally Pally and in the line masks were not mandatory. Even though they were not needed around 10% still wore there masks.

 

The gates opened at 6:30 and we had to line up again to have our bags searched. There were three different metal detectors we had to walk through, however although there was all these strict measurements, our bags were still not searched properly.

 

We then all bundled into the large hall, which had stalls for merchandise, food and drinks. The first supporting act ‘RATS’ began performing at 7:00. I had never listened to them before but they were really lively, loud and fun. They performed brilliantly for half an hour and we then, unfortunately, had to wait another half hour for the next supporting act to come on. The Night Café were on next and performed well. We then had to impatiently wait another half an hour for the DMA’s to come on. A half hour wait between supporting acts is too long.  As soon as Tommy O’Dell, Johnny Took and Matt Mason walked on stage, 10,000 fans rushed forward to get a closer look of their favourite band. Their performance was very high energy and you could feel the bass!

 

Except for being covered in beer being thrown around, me, and many other fans, enjoyed being back in the crowd!