When it was announced, I thought it was a hoax. A festival with names like Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, The Who, Neil Young and Roger Waters. To me, that sounded like the kind of gig you would imagine you could go to when you die and go to heaven one day. Simply too good to be true.

I could barely believe it when it turned out to actually BE true. Holy cow!

Of all the hundreds, maybe thousands of gigs I’ve seen in my life, this surpasses them ALL, even as just an IDEA, never mind the actual FACT and the actual FESTIVAL….!

I’ve seen Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Roger Daltrey individually, but to have them all in one place is unearthly! :)

I had to try to get a ticket. I realized that the whole world was going to be online at the time the tickets went on sale and there was an imminent risk that I would end up with a crashed webpage or something that said I was number 1,567,901 in line or along those lines.

Yet, if you never gamble you never win!

That particular day, I had to work late, and since I work in Copenhagen and live in Sweden I knew that I wouldn’t make it home on time for the ticket release. The solution was to bring my laptop. I decided to find somewhere to sit at Copenhagen Airport where nobody would bother me, and just be READY….

Copenhagen airport is my second home. I know everything about that airport that a traveler needs to know. :) There is a space right below the Metro-escalators that has a bench with 3 seats that most people never notice. Sure enough, there was only a young guy there, and in the hour that I sat there, nobody else came.

Went to the Desert trip webpage that had this countdown clock, which really got the adrenaline pumping. At the same time I was trying to stay cool and also be prepared for the possibility that I would have to go home empty handed.

The minutes turned to seconds…. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1……..

The page reloaded and it said I was number 1,945 something in line. My spontaneous reaction was: “Okay, I’m screwed, this isn’t happening…” .

Next thing I know, the thing counted down really, really fast, went to number 500 in line and less than two minutes later I was IN.

I now had 10 minutes to complete my purchase or my place in line would go to somebody else.

I knew what I wanted. Where are the STANDING PIT TICKETS???

A hunch told me to click on page 6 – and there it was!

I had already prepared everything so that it wouldn’t take more time than necessary. Google chrome can save your credit card info, but even if that doesn’t work, I had written it down in the Windows word pad, so all I would have to do was cut and paste. Bam – bam and bam!

Before I knew it, I was a proud owner of a ticket to the Desert trip festival!

 

Honestly… I was staring at the screen thinking: “What? Really? That was it? I’ve got a ticket now?”

I still can’t quite believe it!

But yes, best seats in the “house”. I thought everybody had the same easy experience as me but when I checked online I saw lots of angry and disappointed people who said that they had waited for hours in the virtual line, only to find out that it was sold out. From what I’ve heard, and I’m not sure if the figures are correct, about 100,000 tickets were sold out in 5 hours. For both weekends – cause they announced an extra weekend due to the extreme demand. All gone.

I’m not surprised. And I feel incredibly blessed and thankful for being one of the lucky ones who will get to experience this.

It’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever done, right after the Monsters of Rock cruise, but thatyou could pay in installments, choose a payment plan. Here, you had to pay straight up.

Which means, no traveling and no gigs for me until after October. All the plans I had have been cancelled because I have to reek in some extra cash for this.

However, it will all be worth it and Im beyond excited! I’ve always been a Beatles fan, since as long as I can remember, so seeing sir Paul again will be MY treat. :) I love the Stones as a live act, that will be icing on the cake.

And the trip itself, I love it! I had actually booked hotel and rental car BEFORE tickets went on sale. Figured it would be easy to cancel if I didn’t get a ticket to the festival. Also, prices AFTER the tickets were sold out, would be through the roof, so I’m glad that I planned ahead.

Got in touch with a lady on Facebook that will be travelling from Peru to the festival and her and her company wanted to share the rental car with me – so we cut the costs and it’s a lot more fun to get to know new people as well!

This will be fantastic, I can’t wait!!