Reliving my old journalism life at a Taylor Swift concert
Last Friday night I joined almost 90,000 people to shake it off at a Taylor Swift concert. And no, it didn’t involve the usual searching online days before for a resale ticket (which is my usual way to buy my gig/festival tickets). Instead, I was offered one by a PR, thanks to a chance meeting in an east end pub three months before when he told me he had access to a box at Wembley. For the few weeks prior, I was inhaling the Eras playlist on Spotify, and then fast forward to last week, dancing in a box at Wembley. There was food, drinks, and the holy grail when there's a million girls and women - access to a toilet inside. It was total luxe even before I discovered Prince William was hanging out a couple of boxes down with his daughters.
During the evening I caught up with Daniel, the PR, and also met and hung out with the external PR (though we didn’t discuss what we did for a living till half way through the gig).
It was spectacular evening, regardless of whether you're a big Swiftie or not (tbh, I wasn't a fan until all my mates started whipping up tickets and posting about it on Instagram. Surprised that so many were into her, I started listening to her music...and found myself playing some songs on repeat).
The evening flung me back to my old life of working on a trade magazine writing about tech and the publishing industry. Back then the above was kind of the norm. There were invitations to boxes at the O2 flying through every week or so (never mind all the parties invites). It got me thinking about how when journalists leave their staff jobs to go freelance, the invites die down – drastically – despite there being, perhaps, more opportunities to work with said journalist across a range of titles. If you’re not already, it’s really worth looking at which freelancers you can invite to your next event, and no, it doesn’t need to be to see Taylor Swift [or insert any major musician]. With freelancers not having as many opportunities thrown at them, your success - and chance to build relationships - rate may be higher.