One of the most exciting things to do for music lovers is to go to a concert, and, surprisingly enough, Richfield, Ohio, is not a bad place to live to get to these fun events. Almost everyone at RHS has experienced Blossom, whether it be the Cleveland Orchestra or a popular singer, many students in this fifteen mile radius have experienced the music that comes from the Blossom stage. 

One of the first concerts I attended was the Cleveland Orchestra, which played the entire Star Wars soundtrack— don’t ask why my mom took me since I had never even seen the movies— and the only memory I have is fumbling my sparkly light up ball all the way to the bottom of the seats to never be seen again— I was in second grade and just got the ball a few days before so you can imagine how distraught I was. I don’t remember the drive home, but you would think since I live about twenty minutes away the drive would be maybe thirty because of traffic; this is where any concert goer is mistaken. 

I went to Kenny Chesney last summer with a couple friends, and leaving the parking lot is no nice game. My friend (the driver) is an avid concert goer, and I have never seen such aggressive driving in my life (if you’re not the driver, I’d advise closing your eyes). That twenty minute drive home turned into an hour and twenty, and I made it home around 1 am. 

For every concert, I’ve always been the passenger so I can’t even speak on the parking and the drive out— and as a horrible parallel parker, it’s probably good I’m not behind the wheel. But, with my experience watching, there’s a few things I’ve picked up on. Number one: don’t lose your keys. Sounds simple right? Yeah, that’s what I thought too until my mom and I returned to the car after seeing Taylor Swift and realized the car key was missing. Number two: try not to have parents that go to bed at 7 pm. Also sounds simple, yet for my mom and stepdad, they hit the hay before 8. So as my mom and I dialed up my stepdad about 10 ten times, we realized we were running out of hope. Number 3: don’t expect there to be an open hotel room. After the hour spent trying to contact a single soul, I decided that a hotel might be our best option. Little did I forget that I was at a 60,000 person stadium and there are far from 60,000 rooms available in a 5 mile radius. At this point my mom and I wasted about 3 hours walking around Columbus freaking out and losing phone battery which leads to number 4: charge your phone. Instead of utilizing the hotels as a place to sleep, we began asking for a charger for our phones. At around 2 am we finally got an Uber and drove home to only drive back the next morning with a spare key. I don’t think it gets much worse than losing your keys at a concert, so keep watch of your pockets. 

The only other tip I can share is to try and pick a one level parking garage or a parking lot. Last weekend, I traveled all the way to Detroit for Luke Combs and got stuck on level 8 of a parking garage— which by the way had about 1 exit for every single floor (as a future civil engineer I would think the past builders could think to use more exits)— and it took an hour to escape our parking spot to get into the line to get into the exit ramp. So keep your pockets closed and your eyes peeled for a good parking spot at your next concert. 

For a lot of people, including me, the next concert is Taylor Swift. Although the tickets were impossible to get and many lost The Great War, but to all the people that did get to tickets, don’t be afraid to walk ten miles to get to the stadium, and expect to be stuck in your car until around 5 am until you finally make it out of your parking spot.