Is it Fun Going to the Same Tour Multiple Times?: Love on Tour and the Magic of Harry Styles
I mean I love Harry Styles but would I have gone to Love on Tour 40 times? I mean probably. More than likely. No shit.
This past week I posted a TikTok where I spoke about a strong-willed (and most likely strong-pocketed) Twenty One Pilots fan who had seen the band on their latest tour over 40 times. An account quote tweeted the original post asking the question,
Responding to that question in the TikTok I looked at the fandoms I’m in and how I’ve seen the same artist on the same tour twice (Harry Styles and the 1975) and how if I had the money I would’ve gladly gone to see them both 40 more.
During Harry Styles’ latest tour “Love on Tour” I saw him a total of four times. Once during the first part of the tour in 2021, again during his residency in LA at the Forum, and twice more during his birthday shows in Palm Springs.
When I went to these shows I saw familiar faces from TikTok and Twitter who had already seen the show multiple times. Harry would even joke with the fans who’ve been barricade at more shows than he can probably count.
Like most things on social media involving fans I remember there even discourse and an odd jealousy and distaste towards fans who’d been to the tour multiple times. Cries of “You should give other fans a chance to get tickets” and “Why would you spend your own money for the same tour?” flooded my fyp. And while I see where those voices come from, especially from those international fans who hadn’t even seen the show once, this thinking really approaches telling people how they should spend their own money. If someone wants to spend their own money on tickets to see their favorite person in the world, who am I to stop or limit them? And stealing away tickets from other fans? Seriously? I’m sorry but villiansing and placing the blame on how the difficulty of getting tickets on actual fans and not Ticketmaster and Live nation is mental.
To go back to the topic at hand after each time I see Harry Styles on tour I couldn’t wait to see him again. Sure the setlist didn’t change for the last three times I saw him but that didn’t matter much. I was just excited to experience that feeling I’ve seldom felt at other gigs. The waiting around for doors to open and ogling over everyones fabulous outfits. The getting to my seat and anxiously scrolling online to see if maybe he sound checked a song that’s not on the setlist. The “Treat People With Kindness” boot scoot. And most importantly, the man himself, Harry Styles.
There’s a magnetism to Harry that to understand you need to experience in person. An energy and magnetism so powerful that once he gets off stage and your ears are still ringing you feel that seismic shift in the air.
I believe it’s that energy that makes fans want to see their fave on tour dozens of times. In a world of stan accounts and streaming where our idols are accessible to us 24/7 it makes perfect sense that fans will want to see them live and in the flesh again and again. With concerts being temporary that magic is limited to that show and after that show that magic is gone forever. Sure there’s probably going to be another show and another tour but it won’t be a recreation or that same exact magic or energy from before.
It makes perfect sense why some fans will go into massive credit card debit to follow their favorite artist on tour. Sure paying it off in the future will probably suck but that’s the future. These moments at concerts, that magic, that energy, is only going to be there temporarily and you got to get it while you still can. To bring up a quote that I and many others said to ourselves during the pandemic “MONEY IS FAKE HARRY STYLES IS FOREVER”
Which I mean isn’t wrong as money is a social construct. But Harry Styles? That feeling you felt on Love on Tour surrounded by thousands of other beaming Harries singing their heart out to songs that for many, including myself, helped them out majorly during the worst of the pandemic? That shit is forever. Almost four years after I saw him in San Jose during Love on Tour 2021 I still remember that feeling I felt hearing “Canyon Moon” live for the first time. I can’t tell you how much I spent on my ticket or parking or merch or anything like that. But I can tell you that feeling. Because again
MONEY IS FAKE HARRY STYLES IS FOREVER