.:FOBULOUS:.

I flew back home from Brisbane the night before the concert in Sydney. I was freaking out I wouldn’t make it back home in time as I was on the last flight home for the day, but it was delayed by an hour and a half which meant we could potentially miss curfew and have to reside in Brisbane for another night. LUCKILY I made it back to Sydney that night & was in need of some sleep for a jam packed day ahead of me.

May 26th, 2012: Meet and Greet day!! I had the pleasure of having my best friend, Rita join me on that day. We got ready at my house and made our way to Allphones Arena. We had to be there by 3:30pm in order to get the Meet & Greets done, along with crowd free merchandise shopping. Now for these Meet & Greet ops, you either purchased an Ultimate package which allowed you, alone to go in and meet the guys with a time limit of 5 minutes or you purchased the 5* VIP tickets (which was what I got) so you had to be in groups of 10 to go in and meet them & you only got like 2-3 minutes with them. Prior to this day, my Meet & Greet group communicated through a Facebook group where we got to know each other & discuss concert day occurances & concerns. So on this day I had the pleasure of meeting my group of 9! which included my best friend Rita, myself, Cathy, Christine, Jeannine, Barb, Leah, Lisa & Abi. It was such a pleasure to finally meet them in person!

Once we all met up, it was time for us to check in, go into the VIP rooms, get our light refreshments and wait to meet the guys, as we were sent in group by group. GROUP P REPRESENT! Whilst we were waiting, the people that purchased VIP packages for the Backstreet Boys were in the arena listening to their sound check… and man was it loud! It was a little entertainment for the wait. Group P finally gets called and we line up outside the room to meet the New Kids on the Block!! We had all planned who we were going to be standing next to in the photo and if the opportunity for a second photo came up, we’d switch guys. Since I became a fan of NKOTB, I have always loved Jonathan Knight so he was the one I wanted to stand next to. We all agreed that prior to the 2nd photo taken, Cathy would call out SWITCH so we’d switch guys… that didn’t exactly pan out the way we planned haha. So the security guards finally allow us to walk into the room… There I was walking into the room where the New Kids on the Block were, my heart was literally pounding. The first band member I see in Danny Wood. I say “Hi, my name’s Veronica” and give him a big hug. He was SUCH a sweetie! Not to mention I loved the way he said my name hahaha. Next up was… wait for it… JONATHAN F**KING KNIGHT!! omg!! like holy sh*t!! I gave him a huge hug & he gave me the best hug in return (I heard he gives bear hugs… and sure enough he did!) Things were kind of a rush, so I thought don’t waste time move on.. I was about to walk on to his brother Jordan Knight, but Abi & Lisa had already planted themselves in position for the photo to be taken, so I found myself awkwardly standing next to Jon for a few moments… so I thought I’d start up some small talk “Soooo How’s the tour been!?” - “Yeah, it’s been great!” replies Jon. haha “… …” The camera guy finally takes the 1st photo… then the 2nd… and nobody moved! Then Cathy calls SWITCH and I run to Jordan (who was the one I wanted to stand to 2nd) totally ditching Jon and not even saying goodbye (totally felt like an idiot when I realised what i did) but then the guards were telling us to leave the room & I was like HELL NO.. I did not pay $450 dollars just to talk to two of the band members (I LOVE YOU JON & DANNY!! I seriously do!) So as I was walking out, I managed to hug Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre & Donnie Wahlberg (who didn’t even hug me back coz he was too busy checking out my best friend! haha YOU GO GIRL!!) As I was walking out, I was like holy crap… that was so fast!! but omg! I JUST MET THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK!!

to be continued…

Soooo basically I’ve been a huge fan of New Kids on the Block since October 2008. I was very excited to see them when they announced they were coming to Australia in 2010… but that excitement was crushed when they cancelled the tour. So when they announced their Summer tour going through Europe, Australia, Indonesia & the Phillipines… I was over the moon. But not only were they coming to Australia, they were bringing the Backstreet Boys with them for a joint tour - NKOTBSB.

In November 2011, I bought a 5*+ VIP ticket to the show in Sydney, which gave me front row seats, merchandise and the opportunity to meet the New Kids on the Block whilst having a photo taken with them (along with 9 other fans) The wait for May 26th felt like forever but time definitely flew!

About a week prior to the concert, I had a spontaneous moment, leading me to buy tickets to the Brisbane concert which was on May 23rd. So I booked flights, bought my concert ticket and was on my way. Luckily my brother lives in Brisbane so I didn’t have to worry about accommodation & transport.

May 23rd, 2012: I flew from Sydney to Brisbane that day on a 12:30pm flight. Got to Brisbane around 2pm. Spent the day with my brother & family until around 6pm… It was time to get ready for my first ever New Kids on the Block & Backstreet Boys concert! The show started at 7:30pm but their opening act Johnny Ruffo performed first. For those who don’t know, he was from the show X Factor: Australia and is or was on Dancing with the Stars. NKOTBSB didn’t take the stage until 8:30pm. Not gonna lie, as soon as they came on stage, I teared up. It was just amazing to finally see them in person, with my own eyes. Just the thought of being in the same location as them was crazy for me. I was at that show by myself and was seated directly in the middle of the last row way at the top of the arena… in between BSB fans! Kinda killed me as I was the only one in my row belting out, word for word all the New Kids songs, but for my first concert there… It was bloody amazing!!

After the show finished, I had the pleasure of meeting up with some fellow Aussie blockheads that I had gotten to know on Twitter & Facebook. Meeting these girls for the first time was so crazy but amazing! and to think that a band of 5 guys were the reason why we came together.

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