I’ve made barrier only a couple of times in my life. But it was enough to learn that the experience is clearly different from standing on even 2nd or 3rd row. 

When you stand further back, you’re focused on the stage but there’s always the backs of other people’s heads, flailing arms and phone screens keeping you in the here and now. You’re inside the crowd of your fellow fangirls, which is mostly wonderful. 

But something more transcendent happens when you’ve made it all the way to the front. You have an uninterrupted view of the stage, and your band. Of course you feel the poking in your back and you hear the screaming all around you, but it’s possible, in moments, to mentally block out the rest of the audience and the rest of the world, and be fully immersed into the music and the universe of the band. 

The few times I’ve experienced this are priceless memories burnt into my brain.⁠⁠ 

So I fully get the phenomenon of queueing. Waiting outside an arena in the cold and rain, for hours or days, just to get to the front of a pop concert — that’s not crazy, that’s worth it. It’s girls claiming time for themselves, making the experiences they want actually happen. 

And they wouldn’t do it if the waiting wasn’t also fun. You’re inside a bubble of excitement, a secret parallel world for the initiated, while normal people pass by on their way to work or the grocery store, shaking their heads. And you’re so happy, knowing you’re about to make memories that will stay with you forever ❤️⁠⁠