the waiting game: box office stories

every time i go on instagram or twitter, a new artist is announcing a tour and releasing tickets that same friday. truthfully, they are ridiculous because how am i supposed to allocate enough money for the concert when i barely have enough for a sweet treat?

thankfully, i’ve figured out a hack to get tickets. maybe not a hack but something many don’t usually try. the box office!!! with this method, i have scored tickets for artist such as harry styles, sabrina carpenter, and billie eilish the day of. 

(box office view, pic by estrella)

my first time ever going to the box office was in 2022 for harry styles and i got super lucky with how unprepared i was. the box office opened at 11am, i got in line and there was around 30 people in front of me. by 1pm they started selling tickets

and by 1:45pm i had two 200 level tickets for harry styles for about 149.  super great concert and worth it!

(harry styles view, pic by estrella)

the next box office experience i had did not go as well. this was for sabrina carpenter two years later, and, honestly, all odds were against me and i persevered. i went at 9am, two hours before the box office opened, thinking i beat people. why did i get there and the line wrapped around the united center?! i was 341 in line. my friend and i waited 'til 11am. they told us there were no tickets and we could wait till 1pm if we wanted. at 1pm, they said there were only standing room tickets, which are behind the 300 section and, not to be snobby, i did not want those seats. so we went home, got ready, and decided we would just get resale tickets. we went back to the united center and had no tickets even when they closed the box office at 7pm. resale tickets were A THOUSAND dollars and would not drop. we decided we would take our L and just get merch. after we got our merch, we decided we would wait 'til 8pm to decide what to do.

at 8:15pm a girl comes up to us and asks if we are still looking for tickets. we exclaim “yes!” and she tells us to go to the box office inside because they are selling tickets there. we go, and they tell us they only have one seat when there were 3 of us. that upset me. we were standing around all sad when some girls approached us trying to sell us tickets. at this point, it seemed sketchy, but we just wanted tickets at that point. while talking with the girls, a worker asks if everything was fine and the girl quickly responds with, “oh we’re just selling them our tickets!” at that moment, the guy gives me a look, and i just KNOW these girls were sketch. i tell my friend to stop sending the money, and i walk over the guy. the workers tell us they have THREE FLOOR tickets for 190 dollars. we buy them, and after that everything moved so fast. by 8:30 we were on the floor, and 10 minutes later, sabrina was on stage. it was the craziest experience i have ever had but honestly so worth it.

(sabrina carpenter view, pic by estrella)

i told myself i wouldn’t do it again until i did it a month later for billie eilish. this time i was more prepared, but it was so cold. i went at 6am, and waited in line with NO updates till 2:30pm. i thankfully waited less and got floor tickets for 200 bucks. my feet froze, but i had the best time! it was my second time seeing her, and i would definitely do it again for her.

(billie eilish view, pic by estrella)

from this, i hope you guys learned that the box office can be crazy but so worth it. just be prepared to wait long and stay warm!