Free Theatre/Concert Tickets Discussion Thread

[Beate]

For everyone going to Apassionate today and tomorrow, remember they will take away the tops of all the bottles you bring from home. So try to conceal them or bring spare bottle tops as it's a real nuisance having to carry open bottles around! Once you are in your seat, they don't usually check anymore.

[valda]

For everyone going to Apassionate today and tomorrow, remember they will take away the tops of all the bottles you bring from home. So try to conceal them or bring spare bottle tops as it's a real nuisance having to carry open bottles around! Once you are in your seat, they don't usually check anymore.

No that I'm going but I always have a spare bottle top in my bag. I can understand at a rough gig taking away the tops but at a sedate concert, or watching horses? How many of the audience are likely to throw bottles?

[raj101]

depends whose playing, Val.


Does anyone know what the free Garrick theatre tickets were for Sunday night? Was it 'When we were married'?

[birovr]

It looks like it was a one off for:

Lance Horne: First Things Last
London
Garrick Theatre
Sunday, 30 Jan 2011 at 7:30PM

Just seen the post and, of course, it was too late and I started searching around as well to check what I missed

[raj101]

It looks like it was a one off for:

Lance Horne: First Things Last
London
Garrick Theatre
Sunday, 30 Jan 2011 at 7:30PM

Just seen the post and, of course, it was too late and I started searching around as well to check what I missed

you share my misery, biro.

damnz.but thanks!

[Beate]

Just back from Apassionata.

When we arrived at the O2, there were 2 queues outside, one saying "collection of pre-pa*d tickets" and the other saying "guest list only". I wasn't sure which category SFF tickets fall under so sent the OH to queue at the much longer pre-pa*d queue and went over to the guestlist window which was virtually empty. I noticed two of the girls in front of me talking in German to the woman behind the window, so I shamelessly used this when it was my turn. I said to her in German, with a winning smile: "I do speak German as well but I am not sure I am in the right queue." She looked at my ticket and said "technically not, but it's ok" and smiled back. So I got bolder and asked her for good tickets not too high up "as I am a bit iffy with heights". She said she had not that much choice to offer me but would see what she could do. She then proceeded to give me tickets in Level 1, Row U but in the middle bit, and it turned out not to be too high at all and I was quite chuffed with those.

Then I found out that bevvy had managed to get seats in Row AA (first row in the middle) by going to Customer Services and pointing out that her OH is in a wheelchair and won't be able to manage steep staircases. They were even given tickets for the VIP lounge! Look out for a woman handing these out at the entrances. We managed to smuggle our bottles in fine, btw. The OH's coat has deep pockets...

It started 10 minutes late due to pesky latecomers. Our seats were at the end of the row which I prefer as I don't want to have to squeeze past people - there isn't much legroom at the O2 arena. Of course it meant we had to get up about 10 times to let people through, which I resented, particularly those who didn't even wait for me to get up and just shoved through, falling over my bag in the process. I don't know why they let in people that late, some came in at 3.40pm!

The show itself was amazing. It was a brilliant show-off of horsemanship, at times very fast-paced and action-packed (with the guy standing on two horsebacks at the same time while jumping over a burning fence being a highlight), at other times slow-paced and cute, showing off ponies and donkeys etc. The one bit I didn't like though is that they tried to give the show a narrative. It doesn't need one, the story is stupid, so just forget about it and concentrate on the horse action - they don't need an excuse.

Wrap up warm, the O2 isn't exactly cosy. Take ear plugs as the music is very loud. And if you text "stars" to a number they tell you, you could win a backstage tour after the show. And if you don't win they text you a code for a backstage tour online at their website. Take a good camera or even video camera, as filming and taking pictures is expressly allowed. They ask you not to use flash as it could startle the horses but no one took any notice, and to be honest, there were so many flashing lights in the show, it would have astounded me if the horses had been fine with these but got spooked by flashing cameras from the audience!

The show is roughly 2 hours long, with almost half an hour interval in the middle. We were out by 5.20pm.

7.5/10

[birovr]

Good good... Beate what time you suggest to get to the O2? We are going to the 15:00 show tomorrow afternoow (do I have to pretend with a German accent or do you think my Italian one could do the job as well?)

[Beate]

We were there at 1.40pm to get good tickets. Bevvy was even earlier. The queue for pre-pa*d tickets was already considerable. Of course then we had to sit around a lot. The arena was quite booked but not entirely full, especially at the higher levels, but we also had 4 empty seats in the row behind us. I would be interested to know how full it is tonight. Bevvy said they had planned VIP tables in front of the stage as well (there are some on the left and right sides) but decided to put another row of seats there instead, which she then got tickets for.

[wsc]

Sitting in 107-U - interval right now.

[Beate]

Ha ha - that's where we were. Seat number?