Wondering what the view from your seat will be before buying concert tickets? Here’s everything you need to know about getting a decent ticket to Wembley Stadium. I saw Harry Styles’ Love on Tour 2022 from level 5.
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Transcript: Is The View From Your Seat Worth It? Wembley Love On Tour
Bear: [00:00:00] Perhaps, you just want the cheapest possible ticket at Wembley stadium or any other event because you’re just there for the atmosphere or to see friends or, you know, you’re gonna be half cut anyway, and that you’re gonna rely on social media and videos on your phone to remember what happened. Perhaps you’re planning to go to more than one show.
So you’d rather have the cheapest possible tickets in order to do that than pay full whack and only get to go to one concert. Personally, my concept of value for money with concert tickets is I want a decent view of the stage. I’m a short person. I wanna know what’s going on. I know we have giant screens, but I’m extremely visual.
I wanna see as much as I can hear, but I also obviously want it to be in my price range. Now I went to Harry Styles’s first night of two at Wembley stadium for love on tour 2022. So I’ll talk you through the layout of Wembley stadium if you’re thinking of going to an event there, maybe you’ve never been, or it’s just so long since you’ve been, you can’t really remember what to expect.
Now, obviously Wembley is also very well known for its sporting events. So you have got a massive pitch there, and if you’re buying a ticket for the pitch, [00:01:00] that’s definitely standing only. Whereas if you go to Birmingham Arena or London O2 arena, you can usually get a floor ticket and a seat.
Arguably sometimes there’s no point having a seat if you’re gonna buy something on the floor space, because everyone’s going to stand anyway so that they can see because you’re all on the same level. But then you could also say that about tier seating on the sides that everyone ends up standing if they can.
Anyway, again, this is why, if you’re short like me, I’m usually trying to get into a good spot because if someone six foot tall is in front of me and I’m already in row 60 million, then I’m definitely not going to see anything. And because the pitch is so big at Wembley stadium, to get close to the stage, those individuals are the kind of people who camp the night before to make sure that they’re in prime position, as soon as they can possibly get…
I think they have to like queue up for a wristband, uh, so that they can get into like the pit area right at the front of the stage. And your chances of getting that close to the stage if you just rock up when the gate’s open at four o’clock with all the other scrubbers, it’s not [00:02:00] happening. So I personally wouldn’t pay to stand on the pitch for a few reasons.
I wouldn’t pay extra to do that if I wasn’t also planning to camp in order to try and get to the front of the stage, because you’re not actually guaranteed to be any closer to the stage. Than, if you bought a dedicated seat, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll be able to see cuz you’re on that flat level with everyone else.
So it really just depends on how tall you are or how much you’re willing to jump up and down. With that said, I think a lot of the concerts goers who go for floor tickets do so, so that they have got lots of freedom of movement. It is the place where you go to dance as wildly as possible. You don’t have to worry about, well, you might still elbow someone next to you, but there’s space for things like conga lines and throwing inflatables around.
Whereas obviously that sort of thing, very difficult to do in the seats. So above the pitch at Wembley stadium, you’ve then got the seats numbered in the one hundreds. And when you look at this, it looks like it’s split into two sections. It covers basically the whole lower section of the stadium. I [00:03:00] have been in a 100 seat, quite near the stage on the side.
So probably in something like section 125, 124, and I can recommend that because we are just at enough of a diagonal so that you could still easily see the screens. And you’re definitely close enough to the stage to clearly see humans walking around on stage. If you’re in more like the sections numbered 1 0 8, 1 0 9 through to like 115 ish, you’re right at the back of the stadium there. So you are lower down and you’re at enough of the height that you’ll be able to see over the people on the pitch, but you will be relying on the screens because whoever’s on stage is going to look like a teeny, tiny Lego figure walking around.
And then above that you’ve got seats numbered in the 200s. This is quite a small tier, very rarely do I actually see tickets easily available for this tier. And I think you’ll find that’s because those seats back onto private lounges. So they’re the kind of seats that, you know, people sitting there have either had their tickets comped, [00:04:00] or they’ve maybe won a competition or they’ve been given free tickets because they’re a celebrity, that sort of thing.
That’s sort of the area that you would aim for if you are someone who buys your tickets through a concierge and you don’t care at all what the price is, I think you’ll find you would be possibly in that 200 section so that you’ve got access to the private lounges and you don’t have to go and buy your food and drink with all the other riff raff.
And then at the top of Wembley stadium, you have level five. So this is your other reserved seat section. Now they do warn you that because it’s so high up, it’s not suitable if you have a fear of heights. That would include me. And I was in level five. I have to say it wasn’t that bad. We were right down near the front of level five as well.
So once you are actually in your seat in your row, I wasn’t afraid at all because the rake doesn’t seem that steep. The main problem is just when you’re walking down to get to your seat. If you are right at the front of level five, that’s quite vertigo inducing, but they do have railings. Obviously I’m just a bag lady, wherever I [00:05:00] go.
I usually have like five bags on me. How is that possible when you’re only allowed to take one bag into Wembley stadium? I managed to do a Joey from Friends and wear everything I own and sort of unpacked some bags into pockets and things. And then , it was warm enough once I got inside that I was able to remove layers and unpack some of the things that I stowed away and somehow ended up with extra bags.
So if you’re extremely worried about heights, but you can only get hold of seats in level five, I would just aim for… it sounds counterintuitive, but I would actually aim for a seat right at the back of the top of level five, because then you are closest to The the entrance to level five. So you won’t have to walk down the concrete steps in order to get your seat.
You only have to worry about heights while you’re actually in your seat. And then obviously, as I said, most people stand up for the actual show anyway. And if you’re in that 5 0 7 round to about 519, those sections, and especially if you’re in sections, say 5 [00:06:00] 12, 513 round to about 516, you are looking dead on at the stage from the back of the stadium.
So although you are at the very back, you’ve also got a great line of sight. We did have a lighting rig, I guess, or something that was as tall as the stage, I think, in between us and the stage. So it was on the pitch and it did mean that there were moments where if Harry Styles was traveling and he happened to stop just right of center stage for himself, I guess he was blocked by that.
And we had to rely on the screens, but that’s not really like a common place for a singer to stop for a long time. They’re usually either gonna be hugging their mic in the center of the stage, right? Or for this particular gig, they also had an apron stage. So they had a B stage that extended out into a square shape.
And so some people have managed to get themselves a ticket in the pit, in the center of that. So that Harry Styles was walking around them. And for the most part we could see at all times what was going on, there was a bit of hand waving from the people in front of me. I suppose the other factor that will influence how much you can see if you are short, [00:07:00] is the demographic going to the show.
So the audience was overwhelmingly female. The fun thing about that is that people assume it’s because of all these teenage girls that fancy Harry styles, Harry does have a song called Boyfriends. And he did ask the audience who had never had a boyfriend because they never wanted to. And, and that was some of the most noise made all night because most of the audience is gay, but because most of the audience is female you’re also not competing that much heightwise. So that’s one thing to take into account is if you’re going to a concert where you think the audience is gonna be overwhelmingly male, you might have slightly more of a problem of encountering too many tall people stood up in front of you. In terms of feeling connected to what was going on.
I think the last gig that I went to at O2 arena, which is only about 20,000 people, I wanna say that Wembley stadium is 60,000, correct me if I’m wrong. I did feel a bit more connected to what was going on when I went to the O2 arena because it is that smaller space, but also obviously still a huge amount of people capable of making a lot of noise and making the ground shake.
Whereas at Wembley [00:08:00] stadium, it’s amazing to have that many people there singing along and having a whale of a time, but you can also get a bit lost in the midst if you know what I mean, it’s obviously not an intimate setting to see a concert, but you also might not have a choice if it’s the only way to see the artist that you want.
So for instance, I did have tickets previously to see Harry styles at Birmingham arena and London O2 arena, but those dates got postponed again and again and again, because of COVID and they got replaced with this stadium tour. Instead he’s at that level now, where if you wanna see him live apart from
the one off show that he did recently at Brixton academy to launch his album, it’s gonna be a stadium or nothing. Now as for these giant screens, I’m old enough to remember when the point of a large screen at a concert was so that you could get a close up view of whoever was on stage and you would just have that video feed.
Remember when you could buy concerts on DVD and the footage would look like that video feed that they had had? I don’t know if anyone’s selling concerts on DVD anymore, but also I find that [00:09:00] the large screens have also become a lot more like just watching MTV, if anyone watched MTV anymore. Just a lot, like watching vevo or music videos on YouTube.
There are a few times I got a bit frustrated because they’d added so many visual effects to what was going on on the large screens, uh, that I was like, well, that’s fabulous. And it’s creative and I’m, I’m glad that that’s given a creative freelancer or someone a living, but I just wanna see who’s where, and, and what their contribution is to the song really.
Harry also has quite a large backing band that the fans know really well as well. So they got their due on screen as well. And there was also more than one fireworks display, which I had a really good view of because of being right at the back of the stadium at the top. And those fireworks go off directly behind the main stage.
Whereas I imagine if you were right on the sides as close to the stage as possible. Mm. I dunno if you’d actually be able to see them any easier, even though you’re closer and those fireworks were going off in the pouring rain. So the other thing to take into account at Wembley stadium, It does have more of a roof than it once did, but it’s [00:10:00] still only a partial roof.
So the people on the pitch I think got wet already earlier on in the day. Um, I think some of those people were also incredibly soggy from camping the night before, too. And when I left people, camping were also very cold and wet. Harry himself got soaked towards the end of the set list. So I think it was dry when he started his concert, but the rain came back.
We were not aware of that at all in level five at the back. Um, because even with the wind that rain didn’t manage to reach us, I didn’t see ponchos or anything for sale either. I’ve definitely seen that before at shows. It’s more common at festivals, I guess. I don’t know if they were selling ponchos behind the scenes on the pitch level, but definitely on level five, if you needed any waterproofing, you would’ve been stuck. There wasn’t anything to buy. You could buy more clothes from the merch stand, but we were very shielded anyway. And also if you’re someone who gets cold very easily, so we arrived really early. The gates opened at four. So we were there probably about half four.
And because we were there so early, the first support act didn’t go on until [00:11:00] quarter past seven. And Harry didn’t go on until 8 45. And I’ve been to concerts at Wembley stadium in the past where they have more than one support. And so the support acts went on from like five, six o’clock if there’s two or three support acts, but because we were there so early and there was only one support act going on reasonably late, for a couple of hours, we had our row entirely to ourselves, but that did also mean that we were a bit nippy because it was not the heat wave that it had been the day before.
And there was a bit too much air circulating in level five at the back of the stadium. But once people came in and the stadium actually filled up, we were fine. Even though we hadn’t bought that many layers with us. Again, if you get soaked on the pitch and you’ve then got a queue for like an hour to get on the train.
So when you come out of Wembley stadium, I’ll talk you through where’s the best place to get a seat in terms of the exit too. But when you come out, if you are using Wembley stadium station, there’s trains every 10 minutes or so to central London, and then you’ll split into queues for all your other destinations, you can’t sort of chop and change where you’re gonna go
if [00:12:00] you have got more than one train station near your home that you could go to. And you’re also in those queues for a long time, so it might be 45 minutes or an hour until your train, but you kind of need to get into that queue at the train station as quick as you can, because it’s such a crush for everyone to try and get their last train.
And that’s not under cover. Definitely take an umbrella if you are going to be on the pitch or in the lower sections. And if you’re gonna be in level five, take an umbrella anyway, for the train home. Now, in terms of a quick exit, if you are worried about getting home, which I was because I did only have one or two trains that I could catch, and then I would’ve been stranded.
We bolted the second the last song finished. Harry has been known to do a triple Encore of Kiwi in the past, but I think the curfew at Wembley stadium prevented that. So he was done by 10.30. And to get out from level five, you have to walk down an extraordinary amount of stairs. You’re basically circling the stadium.
Well, maybe not circling the stadium, but you are going down a spiral of staircases all the way down to the ground [00:13:00] level, basically. And then you’ll still usually have a walk to get to say Wembley stadium station or any of the tube stations that are on the opposite side of the stadium near to like London designer outlet.
I don’t remember going up that many stairs when I entered. And I think it’s because if you’re going in those entrances at the back of the stadium, like entrance d, E, F, roundabout there, your approach to the stadium outside is walking up a massive slope. And so I think you’ll find you are going up almost to the level that you’re going to be on anyway.
So once you get inside through the entrance, there’s only like one or two stairways to get to your seat, but that could make you a bit complacent because then you think, oh, well that was really quick and easy to get to my seat, even though I’m right at the back of top of level five. And it’s just because you don’t realize how far you’ve walked outside the stadium, because you’re not actually going up stairs.
But you have a lot of stairs to get down on the way out. There’s probably no oddsing that, unless you are in say section… I wanna say if you’re in like the sections, like a hundred twenty six hundred twenty five, around that sort of [00:14:00] area, I imagine those are probably the easiest sections to exit if you’ve got a rush to the train stations, The only other solution to that is to stay nearby.
I couldn’t get a hotel near Wembley stadium. All of the rooms had gone before I’d even managed to buy my tickets. And that I was in the presale too, that was before the general sale had even So I think what people had done is that they had heard about the presale booked a hotel room just in case, and then discovered whether they actually managed to get the tickets they wanted in the presale.
So you’re probably also looking at maybe getting a hotel further away and because of that issue of trying to take national rail away from London, your best bet would probably be in terms of travel to be traveling into central London. But then obviously that’s probably gonna mean a more expensive hotel unless everything within a 50 mile radius is charging extra because they know that there’s a concert on at Wembley stadium, and that they’re on the route to Wembley.
There is a rule for deciding whether you can afford something, which is, could you afford to pay for that thing three times. So Ticketmaster have introduced buy now pay [00:15:00] later. They’re trying to encourage the idea that, Hey, if you can’t afford it once, you can still get the tickets and you’ll just have to pay it on a payment plan.
And that really worries me because the reason I think the other rule is safer, which says, can you afford to buy this thing three times, is because I think when you’re buying a ticket, you are just looking at the ticket price and whether you can afford that, but actually what you are committing to is can you afford the travel?
Can you afford somewhere to stay? If you can’t get home after all, for some reason. Do you want to buy merchandise as well? So the merchandise was like 15 pound for a pair of socks, right up to about 55 pound for a hoodie. Are you gonna take all your food and drink? It’s quite common to have bottles or bottle lids confiscated so that you can’t throw your lids.
And also because a bottle without a lid is less aerodynamic. It’s less of a missile. It’s a shame that concert venues would have to confiscate a bottle for that reason. It does mean if you’re buying water inside, it’s quite common to be given the bottle without the lid as well. So you [00:16:00] then have to wander around with an open bottle.
You can’t store it easily. I did manage to get inside with bottled water that didn’t get taken away. And I also took some of my own food. Wherever your seat is, you won’t have any trouble finding a merch stand or finding food and drink. What I will suggest though, is that if you can do a lap of the level that you’re on, you will give yourself more choice.
So don’t just assume that the nearest food and drink stand is the only thing that’s available throughout the stadium. You don’t have to buy that rose that’s 13 pound a glass. We carried on walking and we did find we could get half a pint for £3.60, which makes your money go a lot further, obviously.
And that there was also more of a range of food. Although the food was all kind of in a range of about nine to 12 pound if you’re buying hot dogs, falafel, chicken and chips. They did have a big popcorn store. I didn’t see how much that cost. I like to think it wasn’t nine pound a pop though, but Hey, it is Wembley.
It probably was nine pound a tub. If you’re trying to reconcile the view from your seat with what time to arrive, I wouldn’t worry too much. So like I said, we got there at half four. We had loads [00:17:00] of time to get to our seat and loads of time before the first support act came on at the end of the day. It is about a 15 minute walk from one side of the stadium to the other.
So if you are arriving by Wembley stadium train station, or train stations on that west side of the stadium and your entrance is in the like D to F sort of zone at the back of the stadium on the east side, then yes, you are gonna have a bit of a trek. So it. If you didn’t show up at the train station until 8.30, it would be a crush to get into the stadium and get your seat before the act goes on at 8 45 or nine o’clock.
But I think for the majority of people, no matter where you are sat, you don’t need to worry too much about whether you are compromising your view so that you can get to the stadium as quick as possible. And lastly, you might want to film what’s going on. And from that point of view, I don’t think it matters as much how much you pay for your ticket.
So I was able to get some really good footage, even though my phone camera only goes up to a five time zoom. I would’ve liked to have been able to zoom in a bit more, but then obviously the quality degrades, crucially, it was commented to me that I was [00:18:00] getting better footage because I have a Google pixel.
And so it was just dealing with the glare from the lights really well. So it’s actually really good in lowlight settings for photographs and video. So I was able to get quite a nice sharp image of what was going on, even though there’s obviously a lot of light auras. Whatever a photographer would call it.
Photographer would call it. You usually can’t take a DSLR into these venues. So you’re not gonna have anything with a really long lens on it otherwise. And the only other way to get better footage apart from being looking straight on at the stage, like we were, would be to be in that pit section at the front row.
And as far as that goes, from my point of view, it’s not how much do I wanna pay to camp the night before? It’s will you pay me to camp outside a stadium? Because if not, that’s not happening. I’ll link to the concert footage that I was able to get the full set list. If you wanna have a really good peak at what the seat view is like from where we were.
And we paid about 75 pound, including fees, I think. And I think that was less than I paid for the tickets that I bought [00:19:00] in 2019 that didn’t go anywhere. I think I paid about 90 pound previously. To get tickets for Birmingham arena and O2 arena. That was per show. But then I would’ve been a lot closer to both stages on those occasions because I would’ve been in a seat in the floor sections. On this occasion it wasn’t really a case of could I pay more for a better view? I was in the presale because I had those tickets for the previous tour that got canceled. I was in a special presale just for those customers who had their previous concert tickets refunded. And to be honest, I think there was only one pair of tickets that were in the 100 section that came up that I rejected because I was trying to get as close to the stage as possible.
And all it was giving me was tickets in level five. And I rejected them so many times that Ticketmaster actually locked me out on my laptop and wouldn’t let me buy anything, I guess, because they thought I was like a troll or a bot at that point because I’d rejected so many tickets. I’m autistic. So it was really difficult for me to try and make a [00:20:00] spontaneous decision about, okay, do I actually want these seats?
And then they don’t give you very long to check out either. So that’s why it’s really good to research in advance exactly where you might be. As it turned out I didn’t have a lot of choice of where to be. It was kind of level five or nothing unless I had wanted to wait for the general sale, but those tickets did sell out extremely quickly and it’s debatable whether only level five tickets were available in that pre-sale because they were like, okay, well, we’ll fill up that section as much as possible first. It’s not near the stage. It’s high up. Not everyone wants to sit there. They’re not the best seats. But on the flip side of that, given that we were able to look straight at the stage, we were protected from the rain.
You’ve got a great vantage point, precisely because you are high up, you could also argue that actually they were great seats for the price. I thought it was worth it anyway, even though on this occasion, it’s not like I could have gone for something else. And if you have the same problem, by the way, and you get locked out of the Ticketmaster website, I went onto my mobile phone where obviously the cookies weren’t stored that I’d rejected those other tickets and it let me go back into [00:21:00] the presale. There would’ve been no other way for me to buy tickets. It was a Ticketmaster only presale, but obviously I didn’t wanna get locked out of their website twice. So I just went for whatever came up next. And that’s how I ended up in block 516.
I’ll probably do a full spending breakdown if you wanna get an idea of how much a night out like this will cost overall. So like this and leave a comment if that would be useful. And I hope you either have a great concert, or if you think to yourself, you know what, I’ll just hope for the best and hope someone puts it on YouTube, I hope you really enjoy keeping that money to yourself.
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