Ask any girl you know to describe “girlhood,” and they’ll have a different answer. Some will say girlhood is a specific song, a scene in a movie or often something very niche that we think few people will understand but ends up being something incredibly relatable. Girlhood is not defined in a single word, it’s understood in experiences. And for me, the most recent definition of girlhood I have discovered is waiting in line for tickets to Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour outside Madison Square Garden.
On Friday April 5, 2024, Olivia Rodrigo played the first of four shows at the infamous Madison Square Garden. Like many people, I saw videos and immediately my wish to attend the concert skyrocketed. Then, I went online. I shouldn’t have been surprised at how high the ticket prices were, but my jaw still dropped. $600 for nosebleed seats is excessive, even for a mega-star like Rodrigo. I gave up after opening my fifth resale website to another overpriced ticket.
The next morning, my friend texted me: “Do you want to do something crazy and go wait outside the box office at MSG for tickets tonight?” My answer? Absolutely, 100%. Yes. So, that afternoon, we set off on our journey, arriving at the Garden around 4:30pm. We weren’t the only people with this idea, which seemed less and less brilliant by the minute, but we stuck with it. When we got there, there were approximately 100 people in line in front of us. By the end, nearly 400 had amassed behind us.
Girlhood Experience #1: The universal struggle & new friendships along the way
One of my favorite things about this albeit torturous experience was meeting the people in line with us. Behind us were four girls, college students in the city, also waiting their turn for tickets. We talked to them and found out that they’d waited the entire morning only to be told there were no tickets left and they had to return that afternoon. They spent the rest of the day getting ready, putting together outfits and even gluing gems to their faces, and at one point a woman working for Teen Vogue interviewed them for a piece she was doing. We joked with the others in line as we watched young kids enter the stadium, one girl behind me saying “You’re not old enough to relate to her music, what are you even doing here?!” A great question, I might add. After waiting nearly three hours, we finally made it close to the front. With only twenty people in front of us, the anticipation was beginning to kick in and our spirits were lifted.
Girlhood Experience #2: The disappointment
Behind us, a girl began to repeatedly say “no, no, no no no,” and I looked up from my phone to see two men in gray suits somberly approaching the line. They began motioning their hands across their throats in a cutting movement (a tad extreme, if you ask me) and as they walked up and down the line they said the three words no girl aged 15-21 wants to hear: “We’re sold out” The disappointment was extreme, with some people crying, some pushing others around and starting fights and others in disbelief. People had spent their entire Saturdays waiting in line, and hours getting dressed up, all for nothing. It was not a pretty sight. My friend and I took the train home and tried to make the best of the experience, but both of us left with our heads down, dejected.
Girlhood Experience #3: The perseverance
Two days later, on Monday evening of our first ALP day here at Fieldston, another friend of mine decided to try her luck, and I joined her. At 11am, her family began rotating spots in line, with everyone from her grandfather, to her uncle to her mom and cousin taking turns in line. I joined the team around 5pm, six hours into their attempt to secure tickets for my friend, her cousin, and I. At one point, a family even tried to skip the line, and others who had been waiting hours were outraged. Once again we were disappointed, and security guards attempted to clear out the crowds when tickets sold out. This time, people stood unmoving, not ready to give up their hard-earned spots in line. Rumors flew fast, with some people saying the guards only told us that to clear up the lines, and that there really were tickets left. Then there were threats to call the police if people didn’t leave. It got chaotic pretty fast, but my friend and her cousin and I decided to wait it out and get tacos while checking to see if ticket prices dropped online. We were told as we get closer to the start time, prices should drop. They did not. Instead, they began to rise with the increased demand from desperate fans outside the stadium. At 8:30pm, after Rodrigo went on stage for her first number, we called it quits. Victims once again of Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, VividSeats and Stubhub, we went home.
Girlhood Experience #4: The Denial / The Glass Half Full
“It’s girlhood!” My friend said on the train ride home. “According to girl math, we each just made $600 by not buying tickets,” she added. She chose to see the glass as half full, while I let the hopelessness sink in. If I waited on two different days, for a combined total of nearly eight hours for those tickets and I couldn’t get them, how could anybody? I know the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster fiasco was a disaster, but I didn’t realize this was such a common occurrence. When did we go from “want to go to a concert tonight?” to “we needed to get presale codes six months ago to even get the chance to get tickets.” All the industry’s problems aside, this story does have a happy ending.
Girlhood Experience #5: The Victory
Early Tuesday morning, my dad got in line once again. It was his second time in two days waiting, and he sent us periodical selfies from the line as the day passed by. Like the “girl dad” that he is (his words, not mine), he went in with a goal, made some friends along the way and came out victorious. Thanks to him, we were lucky enough to get tickets to Rodrigo’s last show in New York City, and even luckier to get seated next to the iconic singer/songwriter, not to mention Rodrigo’s best friend, Conan Gray.
All in all, we’re just girls who were lucky enough to experience Olivia Rodrigo.
