*originally posted here, copied with permission from the author
I’ll admit it, I cried.
So, Saturday was One Direction’s last OTRA Tour concert before their break. I was lucky enough to attend the concert with my friend Kauthar who had tickets and asked me to go with her.
We arrived late Friday night and went straight to the hotel to drop our things and head out for dinner. When we did this we realised how ridiculously close we were to the arena where the boys were playing which was amazing haha!
The next day we got up and had breakfast, went for a little walk and then got ready to go to the concert. The adrenaline was starting to kick in and I was feeling the pre-concert nerves and excitement. When we got in we found our seats and waited for the boys to come on stage.
Jamie Lawson was their opening act (he’s the first one to be signed to Gingerbread Man Records which is Ed Sheeran’s record label) and he was amazing, just an acoustic act with nothing but himself and a guitar on stage but still amazing! He sang a cover of the boys’ “More Than This” and the whole crowd sang along and I cried. At this point I realised that what I’m going to miss the most, appart from the boys, is that sense of being part of something, of a fandom, a family. Us together, all us Directioners if you like, we are like a family, I’ve met so many amazing people through the boys and going to their concerts that it breaks my heart that I won’t be able to do that in a year..
When the boys came on the excitement was almost unbearable, let’s be honest, I lost my shit. I can’t remember every detail now because it was two days ago and I was an emotional wreck but I have a bunch of videos and there might be a concert video coming up on Friday over on youtube.com/annancarms95, just saying, you might want to keep an eye out for that!
What I can remember though is all of the boys repeating that “It’s the last concert of this tour” and Niall clearly saying, “We can’t tell you when we’ll be back, but we can promise you that we will”.
Liam cried during WDBHG asking before “Who here has a broken heart? Me too, it’s ok. This is Where Do Broken Hearts Go” and after the song Louis came up to him saying “I know it’s the last concert of this tour Payno but no need to cry” obviously trying to help Liam hide the fact that he was crying over the “Sophiam” breakup.
During Act My Age Liam’s dad, Julian (one of the boys’ songwriters) and a bunch of the boys’ friends made a conga to the front of the b-stage and danced their asses off with the boys. They replayed the end of ‘Act My Age’ like seven time and the whole arena went crazy, including the boys and their friends and family in the front line, proving again that the boys are “terrible terrible dancers”.
When Harry’s WMYB solo came the boys stood in a line holding each other and it was beautiful! This is when I started crying.
The last song was DMD and just before that Niall thanked everyone, including the boys saying something like “I want to thank the boys, thank you for having me, I’ve had so much fun. I love you boys so much” then they had a group hug which broke all of our hearts! During DMD there was a moment when Liam was singing and he looked at each of the boys making eye contact with them and nodding as in a “thank you boys” kind of way which just made me cry even more.
When they were done singing they all hugged individually, got the band down on the main stage, the all took a bow, thanked the crowd and just like that One Direction disappeared backstage for the last time in a year.
I cried, I was dying because I wasn’t getting enough air because I was crying so much… I have never cried during a concert but the boys have been such a big part of this year, me attending four concerts and what not, that it feels surreal that I’m not going to see them live in at least a year…Sad times!
But the boys deserve a break, not a lot of artists release an album every year and do a tour every year. From the moment they left their houses for the X Factor audition more five years ago, they haven’t stopped for a second doing promo, tour, books, movies, albums… They deserve a break, they deserve to relax and breathe and come back when they’re ready.
We will miss you like crazy boys, but you deserve this so enjoy your break! <3
Fantastic read! 😀 x