When last you left your rain-walking, no-sleeping, Junior blogger (and if you’re just tuning in, that’s me at the end of this post), I’d just won a Meet and Greet Pass for the SCPAB Fall Concert, Ed Sheeran. Which, in and of itself, is pretty remarkable, considering there were two hundred people enrolled and only twenty could win. What was even more remarkable was that another friend of mine had also won, and was kind enough to give his Meet and Greet Pass to my little sister, Allie. Otherwise known as the person from whom I went through all this madness.
Fast-forward a fortnight of frenzied Snapchatting and excited tweets from my sister, and she was finally here, sporting a massive smile and her backpack; she’d come right from school to UD, and left at 5am the next morning so she wouldn’t miss any classes (true Honors student, anyone?).
The email from the SCPAB representative said to arrive before the concert and “meet at the flagpole,” which, in truth, sounded more like a parking lot rumble than a Meet and Greet. But we were there on time, Allie bouncing on her toes and musing on what kind of questions she might ask Ed Sheeran.
While we were waiting at the flagpole, we had the pleasure of meeting some of Ed Sheeran’s truest fans prior to meeting him. Attempts to sneak in without passes included: wearing a shirt that looked like a Big Bob security guard’s and pretending to work in the Bob; hovering around in the line without a Meet and Greet ID badge; and pleading with the security guard.
Once the twenty winners made it past security, we walked to what was probably the room farthest in the reaches of the Big Bob, to a deep blue curtain. Allie turned to look at me with the widest eyes I have seen on her and whispered, “I can hear his voice!!”
For the inquiring minds, Ed Sheeran is completely adorable, polite, and very, very British (not to mention, he smelled wonderful. And I know because he hugged me). I’m almost glad I met him before the concert, because I hadn’t been converted from casual listener to admirer just yet. My sister likes to tell her friends that I had an “actual conversation!!!” with Ed Sheeran, but it was just a normal chat about our nights. He told me he liked my TARDIS iPod case, we took a picture, and moved on.
The concert itself was a blast. For every Ed Sheeran song my sister knew all the words to, I knew all the words to one of his covers. As a person and a performer, Ed didn’t disappoint, and I’m so glad I could make my sister’s “first concert” experience the best it could have been.
