The city that never sleeps never seems to phase me. There appears to never be a shortage of music events going on, from concerts, to pop-ups and even parades. You are bound to see something special from an artist you know in the city. New York City is home to iconic venues too, like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and so many more. And you never have to worry, almost every artist stops at New York on all their tours so there’s definitely a better shot at seeing your favorite artist live here. New York constantly has so much to offer, music or not, and I got to experience that this year.
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see iHeartRadio’s annual Jingle Ball Festival – where they bring out a slate of artists who perform shortened sets. The last time I attended Jingle Ball was in 2021 in Washington DC. However, New York’s show is the most notable and popular of the tour, bringing in the biggest names. This year, they had artists like Laufey, Conan Gray, Nelly, Zara Larsson, Ed Sheeran and more. Unlike other shows, New York City’s show offers a pre-show celebration called All Access Lounge, which was held at the Hammerstein Ballroom. This event has smaller named artists that perform shortened sets, along with tons of giveaways and photo opportunities, all while being a completely free event (which was the best part of course)! This was the first event I attended, and it was quite chaotic (mostly to my own fault). This year’s pre-show had 6 or 7 different artists perform, including Rachel Chinouriri (who I wrote about back in February) and Audrey Hobert (who I wrote about this fall), who are both who I went to see. This event started at 11am, however I got in line at 8:30 so that I could get closer to the stage. And it worked, I got second row at first then eventually barricade. However, there was a price to pay for this. Since I went so early, and the event ended at 5, I only ate something small at like 6am. After that, I ate and drank nothing the entire time. That on top of being crushed by the crowd, minutes before Rachel’s set, the room started spinning, my breathing started to fasten and hurt and I stumbled out of the crowd to a staff member and started to black out. There were blinks that I remember like being carried in front of the stage and getting to the medical table, but everything else was a blur or missing. A very scary moment but also an embarrassing one. I can’t really blame anyone but myself, I didn’t eat or drink nearly enough, and had my thick coat on in a hot crowd, something bad was bound to happen. I’m just disappointed I couldn’t hold on for the two artists I waited there for. After I got better, they let me go back to the back of the crowd to watch their performances where I had a great time and still think it was worth going for. They both performed back to back and all my favorite songs that I knew all the words to so it was still a great time, despite being farther away than I initially was. This is a great event for fans, there’s plenty to do, you get to listen to artists you’ve never seen, and don’t walk away empty handed, despite it being a free event. I would just recommend to any attendees to take care of yourself, eat and drink properly and wear appropriate clothing that way you can fully enjoy the event. But it was a pre-show, which means later that night they had the big show: Jingle Ball.
I didn’t think I was going to this show at all. When tickets originally dropped, they were expensive and sold out the day of. I let go of that idea a long time ago. However, when I went to the pre-show, they kept randomly giving away free tickets and after not getting them for a while, I just searched up how much tickets were. Even though these seats had no view of the stage, I saw tickets going for as low as $14. This main show had the artist I mentioned prior, good speakers and a big screen for the backstage seats. After a few hours of contemplating, especially given I worked from 5-8, in the middle of my shift I bought a $14 ticket. Straight after my shift, I returned to Madison Square Garden, got in and enjoyed the remainder of the show (it started at 7). From backstage, you could see the artists right in front of you before they got on stage. Although it wasn’t as cool as seeing them on stage, it was still cool to see them plus it was $100 cheaper!
After these shows, I spent $14 and saw 14 new artists within 12 hours. There were definitely some downsides but it was so worth it and such a great experience. I crossed off several must see artists for myself and had the time of my life as the ultimate fan girl.
This was just one day of many that was filled with great events and opportunities for music in New York City. A mere example of how great it is to be a fan girl in this amazing city, where you never get bored or miss out on anything!