When Harry Styles canceled his Houston show, I couldn’t help but start crying even though I had a finance quiz in thirty minutes. The one thing that I had been looking forward to for the past two years had been canceled. For the next few days, I was down in the dumps and felt like nothing could make up for the fact that my favorite concert that had kept me going during the pandemic was postponed.
However, later that week, my dad surprised me with tickets to Harryween Night One in New York City during Halloween Weekend.
What followed was a whirlwind trip to New York.
After my 3 ½ hour flight to the city, my dad and I made an immediate beeline to Chelsea Market for the best tacos, Los Tacos No.1. The man at the counter laughed when we told him that this was our first stop!
The rest of the day was spent walking around the city before we had to head back to nap and get ready for the show.
To go all out, I dressed up as Cupid with bright red sunglasses, pink pants with hearts on them, and high heel go-go boots while my dad dressed up in the classic Harry Styles cardigan from when he performed on the Today Show in 2020. He got over 5 compliments on it and was over the moon!
The line to get in was long. But seeing everyone dressed up in costumes was worth the wait. I saw people dressed as Elton John, Harry Potter, the Scooby-Doo gang, Coraline, and Harry himself. It never fails to amaze me the amount of time, effort, and love that his fans put into their outfits.
Once we were inside, the hunt for merch was on. Everyone and their mom wanted to get their hands on the limited edition Harryween shirt. My dad and I were lucky enough to find a shirt on one of the less crowded merch stands, and I was over the moon. We then proceeded to get in line to wait to take pictures with the special Harryween backdrop that Madison Square Garden had provided.
After an hour and a half of waiting, we took our pictures and dipped out to our seats. We enjoyed the rest of Orville Peck’s set and were thoroughly impressed by his setlist! Once he left, we sat down and eagerly awaited Harry’s arrival. We were both beyond excited to see what costume he was wearing.
Soon the lights shut off, and the screaming began as his intro about style began. His band came out one by one in Wizard of Oz costumes, with him being the last to come out in a Dorothy costume, complete with short, red heels and Toto in a basket.
Right away, he went straight into performing Golden. I went absolutely insane and began dancing around like no one was watching. The atmosphere was insane and just so full of happiness. It was exactly what I had been waiting for for the past two years, and it made the waiting worth it.
He then proceeded to talk to the crowd, with a laugh that, “It smells like New York has legalized weed,” before telling the crowd how happy he was to be there performing for us. He then continued on to play songs like To Be So Lonely, Carolina, Treat People with Kindness, and What Makes You Beautiful.
During the encore performance, he sang Over the Rainbow, and I felt my heart completely melt. I teared up a little bit. The way he performed the song to the crowd felt intimate in a way that is rare when a performer is singing to a sold-out stadium.
With a few more songs, he left everything out on the stage as he danced and sang with his fans in the audience. Ending the night on a high note, the guitar strings belted out the opening chords to Kiwi, and the crowd screamed in delight. You could practically feel the entire stadium shaking as everyone jumped up and down. With three final clicks of his heels, he bowed and disappeared off the stage, taking my heart with him.
Harryween was an unforgettable experience. And I would not have wanted to spend my Halloween weekend with anyone else besides my favorite rockstar and thousands of his fans.