The Time I Snuck Down to Floor Seats at Essence Festival

Am I the only one who has this dark-sided alter ego in the back of their head? I swear that I would be a good criminal! In another life, I would be an amazing Selena Kyle/Catwoman type of con artist. I blend in, i’m unassuming, I have a soft gentle voice, I could totally do it. Or maybe I’ve watch Ocean’s Eleven and Catch Me If You Can one too many times.

In real life, I would probably suck at it.

This past summer, I attended Essence Festival for the second time in my favorite city of New Orleans, Louisiana. After missing Usher’s residency in Las Vegas I was determined to see him in concert. To my luck, he was headlining the festival.

I’m also one of those people who believes in trying their luck. Whenever I go to events at arenas, I try to score last minute ticket deals. Which means I typically try to hold out on buying tickets from resellers the day before or day of the event. Sometimes it doesn’t really go my way, but I still persist.

As luck would have it, it worked out this time! I did manage to score floor seat tickets to Saturday night’s show! My first time ever being in possession of the coveted seats. But the seats that I purchased were still pretty far back and not that great. Honestly, the people in the next level up by the stage had a better view. Fortunately for me, I was not in them long! The day of the show, my friend and I arrived at the arena early so we could watch all of the performers.

Of course the showed started late, so we went to a nearby concession stand for snack. After grabbing some popcorn and advancing back towards our seats, the first act was on stage. It was Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank performing as a group, TGT. Before we could reach our seats, Tyrese invited everyone to the front of the stage because it was pretty dead and empty up there. We were walking doing the aisle and rushed to the front as fast as we could and grabbed the closet seats. I’m pretty sure we were in row F, with A being the closet to the stage.

I was able to see the sweat dripping down their faces. We were that close! I’m so used to looking up and seeing performers on the screens at concerts! Now I was at eye level! It felt so surreal being able to look at them so close! Like how was I supposed to go back to the cheap seats after that experience?! And Tank was shirtless! O.M.G.

After the TGT performance ended, everyone went back to their original seats. Everyone except for us. Our thought process was why would we return back to our crappy seats when the arena was still half empty? The only way we were going back is when and if someone showed up to claim our new seats.

Which sounded like a good plan ideally, but it was impossible for us to leave our new seats. It was security posted right outside of the gated area and they checked the tickets for everyone who entered and re-entered. That meant for the next almost four hours, I could not get up for more snacks or use the restroom. I’m a heavy water drink and with it being so hot and humid in New Orleans, my blatter was always close to full. It was definitely a struggle.

Even still, I was on edge the entire time. As people began to trickle in, most of them had a hard time finding their seats in the dark. So here came good ol’ security checking their ticket for the correct row and seat number. Most of the time when they did, they would check the tickets of the people already sitting in the row to make sure everyone was in the right seating arrangement. This only happened to us once and my friend boldly announced that we are in the right seats because we got there early. For the extra icing on the cake, she also said her phone was dead so she couldn’t show the QR code.

Not only that, but I was so nervous that I kept scanning the area making sure that someone wasn’t coming for our seats. I was trying to read the faces of people who approached our row. I was trying to make sure that security wasn’t watching us. My friend even pointed it out that I was looking very obvious. I was just so nervous that we were in someone’s seat and they would involve security to sort it out. It was even a couple of people who got caught doing exactly what were doing and had to go to their original seat!

As the show was coming to an end and it was almost time for Usher to grace the stage, the arena really started filling up. Almost all of the available empty seats were occupied at that point. At any moment the rightful ticket holder could claim our seats! It was terrifying! I was so close to actually seeing Usher up close and at any moment it could be snatched away by another fan. Luckily, everyone who showed up late seemed to take any available seat or watched from the gate directly in front of the stage! I spent the entire night in a front row seat that I did not pay for!

I’ve used the word luck a lot in this post, but I’m honestly sure that’s what it was! It was an amazing experience to see Usher perform! Now that I think back, I’ve had a very lucky travel year. I was able to fly in first class on an international flight, sleep in a nine hundred dollar a night hotel room and sit in front row seats this year all for free! In the past, I thought all those things were a waste of money, but after trying them all I feel like it’s definitely worth it. I am not able to afford those type of luxury’s often, but in the future I will treat myself to them. I feel like we all should every now and then. If for nothing else, because we work hard, live once and will always cherish those memories.