North East Live Experience

Hello Everyone,

North East live happened like a month ago. It was AMAZING! I originally went with my friend Ellie and her younger sister but by the end we had met up with Amy and Beth the reason we didn’t all go together like at One Direction is because we had standing and Amy and Beth had seated tickets. It was held at the Stadium Of Light in Sunderland which Is where I saw One Direction so I knew where I was going and where everything would be so that was incredibly useful.

The atmosphere was absolutely amazing it was sponsored by Blink box music, which has an app that allows you to listen to music for free! Free things are always good. . I’d never been to an event like it before it’s a smaller version of Summertime Ball which I would have LOVED to go to!

I had convinced myself that Little Mix were going to be there and I was incredibly disappointed when it didn’t happen. But every grey cloud has a silver lining as all my favourite artists were there such as : The Vamps, The Saturdays, Jason Derulo, Rixton, Austin Mahone, Rizzle Kicks, Jessie J and many more. So naturally I was as excited as a kid in a candy store. The atmosphere was incredible throughout everyone was singing along and dancing however; there was quite a lot of people who had a few more alcoholic beverages than I would have liked them too. No one likes scary drunk people.

It started at about 2PM so just like every music event I attend we went about 3 hours earlier and qued. There’s something about the excitement of getting inside and seeing artists you love and have dreamed of seeing in real life that makes waiting so exciting and bearable. Also, I’m a talker so I like to mingle with people whether they like it or not. We met 2 lovely girls in the crowd who were just as excited to see The Vamps as we were. Even thought I’ve seen them 3 times every single time is just as exciting and magical but I also get really frantic I’m not quite sure why. Once we got inside the gates we were given standing wrist bands like the red One Directions ones and the fun began!

I knew it was going to be hot so I wore my bright pink playsuit which is great until I needed the toilet then it wasn’t so great. But I’m glad I wore it because it was BOILING must have been about 25 degrees which is hot for England especially hot in the crowd with the sun beaming down. I think I burnt my nose which wasn’t good. I wore my pink playsuit with my denim jacket which I ended up tying round my waist but I’m glad I had it since it was chilly on the long route home and I paired this with my white converse.

I was going to wear my black jeans and a white t-shirt and honestly I am so glad I didn’t because I would have died. It was so hot in the crowd at about 4 we had to come out of it (Just after The Vamps had performed) because it was so hot and sweaty and I don’t give up easily when it comes to concerts/gigs It was just too hot. It was getting hard to breathe and breathing is important.

When we were in the crowd something very exciting happened to me! I saw way up in the stands THE VAMPS just standing there watching Neon Jungle. They were JUST STANDING THERE so I grabbed Ellie and told her we had to go like now! But they were performing next so we made an agreement to go once they’ve came off stage. After their set had finished it was GO time! Myself, Ellie and her sister just started running, not just running sprinting. We ran around the entire stadium to find out to my disappointment it was infact Rixton. I’m going to be real here I was terribly disappointed and refused to leave this seating area until The Vamps came back. I had seen The Vamps standing here I was certain of it, they had to come back sooner or later and I was willing to wait.

Jason Derulo had just came on stage for his set. I have seen him before a couple of years ago and honestly he just gets better with time. He can move dat body like no one else. After about 10 minutes of persistent "persuading" from Ellie we decided to go back into the crowd and just enjoy the rest of the day. But honestly I couldn’t concentrate knowing that Brad Simpson was something in this building waiting to be meeted and greeted by me. Unfortunately, I never got to meet The Vamps and still haven’t to this day which I am honestly not ok about. If anyone reading this knows of a way I can meet them let me know because my lack of meeting and greeting is starting to effect me emotionally.

After we had danced around in the crowd for a bit we decided to go for pizza and join Beth and Amy up in the seated area ready for Jessie J to come on. I had heard good things about her performance and I used to be quite a fan of her but honestly I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

Ok so me and my friends DO NOT get embarrassed like at all. We sing and shout everywhere we go, we’re loud and excited 24/7 take that as a good or bad thing we don't walk we dance and frolic. So naturally we aren’t afraid to sing at the top of our lungs and dance in front of thousands of people since we could be seen around the entire stadium (I can confirm this because when myself and Ellie were at the other side of the stadium accidently meeting Rixton we could see Amy and Beth dancing across the stadium it was beautiful) So we were getting pumped up by the music that was being played between acts which included Mr Worldwide himself (Pitbull) lots of love for Pitbull. Unfortunately Pitbull did not attend North East Live but if he did it wouldn't be an experience it would be an adventure. Anyway, so the 5 of us were singing at the top of our lungs some may say “embarrassing ourselves” whereas I prefer the term “expressing myself through the medium of dance” and all of a sudden these small (peasant) children starting mocking us. Excuse me small child kanye not. But that didn’t stop us. We danced until our feet hurt and sang until we lost our voices. Dance like no ones watching and sing like you're actually good at it.

Once all the singing and dancing was over it was time to head home and go to bed. It had been an incredibly long day in the hot sun and we were all tired and ready to sleep.

The whole day was absolutely amazing I am a massive fan of live music I always have been and hopefully always will be. Personally I don’t think there’s anything better than singing along to the artists who wrote/perform your favourite songs. I have been incredibly lucky to have gone to as many concerts/gigs that I have and am continuing to go to more and more and I am so thankful for this.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my North East Live Experience hopefully next time ill actually Meet The Vamps and won’t get sunburnt.

Here’s some photographs curtsy of Ellie herself thank you my love.

Austin Mahone