Styles gurus
FANS QUEUE OVER A DAY BEFORE STAR IS DUE ON STAGE TO GET PLACE AT FRONT OF BARRIERS – AND BUY MERCHANDISE
HARRY Styles fans were swarming around Emirates Old Trafford more than a day before he was due on stage.
The former One Direction singer is due on stage at the cricket ground at 8.45 tonight for the first of two shows, but his loyal followers camped out last night – despite having early-access tickets to the show.
The star’s Love on Tour stadium gigs are expected to attract 74,000 fans.
The Radtky family travelled 25-anda-half hours from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the US to attend tomorrow’s second show.
Mum Melissa, 53, said: “It was cheaper to come to this show. We tried to get tickets in Chicago and the starting price was £500. It was cheaper to fly here than to go to Chicago.”
Daughter, Charlie, 18, told the M.E.N that Harry, from Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, is her favourite artist and there is one song she’s looking forward to above the rest.
She said: “Matilda, that song will make me cry.”
Sophie Petty, Rebecca Fuller and
Darcey Eastell were camping out for both shows. They queued for merchandise, ranging from £10 for a poster up to £65 for a hoodie, for nearly two hours.
Rebecca, 21, from Leeds, said: “We’re going to both shows. There’s an after party at a different venue so we’ll have to get up early to get in the queue on Thursday.”
Darcey, also 21 and from Leeds, added: “I’m really glad they did the merch a day early, I don’t have to queue again in there.”
Sophie, 18, from Bradford, revealed they had forked out £200 each for early entry to each show and added: “If we talk about how much we’ve spent total, it would be in the thousands.”
Another fan, who asked not to be named, said that she’d spent around £15,000 following Harry on tour and had 10 shows in America booked.
Ellie Street, 19, a student from Liverpool, said: “If there was a place on the site where you could camp, we would have, we did debate it. I’d camp all day for him. Ellie, who was with pal Emily Houghton, also 19, added: He’s just unreal. I don’t even know how to put it into words, we’ve grown up with him. We’ve both said that if we met him, we’d pass out.”
A merchandise manager with the Harry Styles Love on Tour team told the M.E.N. that they expected to make around £2m in sales. He said: “The average sale is not far off £100. People will spend every penny they’ve got. If they’ve got £200 in their bank account, they’ll spend it.”