One Direction & 5SOS: Croke Park

Last month, I spent a weekend in Dublin to go to two One Direction gigs on the 23rd and 25th of May. The weekend went by so quickly and was absolutely incredible.

Friday the 23rd of May:
Makayla and I arrived in the freezing cold and rainy day absolutely ecstatic the weekend was finally here. Not letting the weather bother us we made our way to Croke Park in the evening to queue. Since we arrived a half an hour or so before the gates opened we were expecting to be at the back but to our surprise we saw some girls I knew from England (shoutout to Lauren, Teri, Georgia and Charlie) and ended up about 5 people from the front which was amazing! And so the long wait for 5sos began.

At about 7:30, the band I was most excited to see, 5 Seconds of Summer finally ran onto stage. I was in utter shock that I was seeing them live again and at their first ever stadium show. They were amazing and it was so good to see them in Ireland again.

One Direction came out a while later and I'm not going to lie, they were even better than last year. I spent the whole concert with my thumb in the air trying to get a thumbs up from one of them which Harry eventually noticed and gave me a thumbs up and wave about an hour later. The night ended, we rushed back to the car to go home and get as much sleep as we could before the next day.

Saturday the 24th of May:
We didn't have a concert to go to the Saturday so we dedicated the day to meeting 5sos. Makayla and I got up at the crack of dawn to meet at the train station and return to Dublin after a few hours sleep. We went to their hotel, stood outside their signing in Dundrum aswell as trespassing trying to meet them but it wasn't until about 7pm we got news what hotel they were staying in and went to see what was happening. We stood in the rain just waiting for a few hours when at around 10pm a bus pulled up and Makayla turned and said "I see Michael!". I was in shock and we all stayed calm and waited for them to get off the bus.  Ashton got off, smiled at us and said "Hi friends!" and began taking pictures with fans literally in front of me. Luke got off then and did the same. When Calum got off I approached him and asked for a picture and he said "Yeah sure!" and just as I was getting my camera ready a girl pushed me out of the way, took a selfie with him next thing he was gone. We decided not to leave because Luke tweeted once he got inside saying "I like you guys" because of how calm we were so we hung around till midnight and then headed back to where we were staying after speaking to their bodyguard and waving in the window to Calum, Michael and Ashton who were inside watching a match. It wasn't as successful as we hoped but I'm thankful we got that close to them to be honest.

Sunday the 25th of May:
We woke up and got ready to spend the day walking around but we decided to try catch 5sos leaving their hotel that morning. We waited outside for a while with a few others and a bus pulled up later with a card on the front saying it was for an artist so we realised it was their bus. Makayla and I were at the front of the line by the door of the bus when they came out. We saw them all again and Gemma Styles, Ashton told us they were heading to souncheck in Croke Park and the others waved and said hi to us.

 We spent the day walking and eventually went to Croker for the final night. We were a lot further behind in the line this time but a girl that was good friends with Makayla was a lot further up so we risked our lives and skipped half the queue. We waited and waited but eventually got in and even closer to the stage this time. We were so close we were actually standing in front of girls who paid an extra 100 euros for early entry tickets.

Once again, 5sos came out and their set was even better this day. I was so happy and had absolutely no cares in the world at that moment and honestly would do anything to go back. The security guards were laughing at a few of us for how over excited we were during their time on stage. They left the stage and I felt a sudden sadness knowing that was the last time I would see them for a while.

One Direction came out a while later. It was clear how much closer we were to the stage. The show went by so quickly, it felt like they were there for less than 40 minutes by the time they were leaving the stage. We departed Croke Park for the last time and made our way home.

 

It was an incredible weekend and I doubt anyone read this far but this post really was for myself to read back on in the future. Thank you sooooo much to Makayla for spending the weekend with me and managing not to murder me and to Lauren, Teri, Charlie and Georgia who were so lovely to us!