My One Direction OTRA Tour 2015 Experience!

To be honest, I had this post drafted to go up over 6 months ago but I never got around to finishing it! Yesterday was the boys' last show of the tour and I remembered that I never put this blog post up so here you go! Better late than never, yeah? :P

*** Warning: strong, emotional fangirling may occur as I re-live this experience so reader discretion is advised! ***

I'm going to first start off by giving you guys a brief summary of the series of events that led up to this moment so you can get a feel of the anticipation and excitement I was feeling!

Dec 2013 - My friend and I decided to each make a small wishlist for the new year ahead and naturally, "see One Direction perform live" was on the top of my 2014 wishlist.

May 2014 - Someone must have heard my one too many 11:11 wishes because a few months later, One Direction announced that they would be playing in Manila the following year (March 2015).  I currently live in Kuwait, if you're wondering, but I already consider Philippines as my second home so it's easier for me to travel there as opposed to other places. I clearly remember this moment because I was legit freaking out at the idea of possibly getting to see them and maybe, almost may have peed my pants a little bit!

July 2014 - It was announced that tickets would be going on sale in July and they couldn't be purchased online; they would have to be purchased from certain outlets located in the Philippines so I had to ask for giant favors from my amazing friend over there! (Giant shout out to you Paolo if you're reading this! You're the best!) I really wanted to try and get VIP tickets but they were ridiculously priced and already sold out by the time we checked. After long, chaotic phone calls, our concert and plane tickets were finally purchased and the countdown began! Over the course of the next few months, serious concert prep was in order including glow stick shopping; I even downloaded a countdown app to keep track - the dedication was full blown.

March 19, 2015 - I remember just arriving at the airport to get on my flight when I saw the announcement on Facebook about Zayn not continuing on with the tour. I had about a year's worth of excitement built up for the show and to read that was just disappointing. Life sucks sometimes but you gotta carry on, you know?

March 21, 2015 - We (my sister and I) had tickets for the second day of the show but since the venue was quite close to where we were staying, we decided to go and see how things were like for the first day. Since we had no tickets for this day, we just listened to the show from outside. We didn't think there would be so many people outside but wow, it was packed. There were girls (and guys) screaming and crying everywhere when we heard the boys go on! I filmed a clip but I accidentally deleted it! :( The venue was outdoors so we had pretty good visuals...of the laser lights lol. There were a ton of trees purposely grown to block out the view - how rude! But still, I was so happy we went because it got us pumped up for the show! I stayed for a few songs and it started to rain so we just grabbed some shawarma (shout out to Khaleb Shawarma for the laughs and the food) and went home. 

And finally, March 22, 2015 - SHOW DAY!

It was my first time getting a ticket with reserved seating so I was happy to know we didn't need to wait in line for hours which meant one thing - I got to sleep in all morning! \o/ We got to the Mall of Asia (the venue) at around 3pm and had lunch there to kill time. By then, my anxiety levels were flying through the roof! You know that feeling where you want that thing you've been waiting for to happen but at the same time you don't want it to happen because you don't want it to be over?? Yeah, I was feeling that.

My sister and I decided to head over to the concert grounds when the gates started to open which was about 6pm! Sadly, they had some stupid rule that didn't allow cameras with detachable lenses in the venue, so I had to leave my camera outside, BUT so thankful that they allowed my sister's camera in - so thank you, Sheila for all these beautiful pictures (aside from the super grainy ones which were taken with my phone lol)!

The weather had been bad all weekend but since we always like to think positive, we hoped for clear weather and naturally, got the exact opposite haha! The rain just kept going for over two hours! Meanwhile, Sheila and I were huddling under the only type of shelter we could find -  a Penshoppe catalogue that was literally the size of a magazine. One of my prime times, ladies and gentlemen.

The opening act was DJ KC and he did a pretty good job in distracting the people from the pouring rain! His set was pretty decent but I stayed in line for the porta potty for the most of it haha! Side note: the porta potties they had at the venue were air conditioned! Now I don't know if that's a normal thing now but wow, I was blown away (literally and metaphorically!).

-When the waiter comes out with your food-

The rain started to slow down a little and that's when the boys came on! They opened up with a video montage similar to the one they had at the WWA tour, only with some minor changes. But let's be real, I wasn't even paying attention to that because I was waiting to see them run out. My heart started racing and I can only describe what felt like riding a roller-coaster and anticipating the drop; only the drop never comes and you're just waiting for it.

The first song they performed was Clouds and it was a great warm up for the rest of the show. I don't know what kind of person you are at concerts, but I'm the one that basically just screams all the lyrics - start to end. This was the full set list for the night!

1. Clouds

2. Steal My Girl

3. Little Black Dress

4. Where Do Broken Hearts Go

5. Midnight Memories

6. Kiss You

7. Stockholm Syndrome

8. Ready To Run

9. Strong

10. Better Than Words

11. Don't Forget Where You Belong

12. Night Changes

13. Little Things

14. Alive

15. Diana

16. One Thing

17. What Makes You Beautiful

18. Through The Dark

19. Girl Almighty

20. Story of my Life

21. You and I

22.Little White Lies

23. Best Song Ever

-Harry 'Bender' Styles-

-Let's pretend Niall's staring at me in this picture-

I loved the fact that they chose to add Stockholm Syndrome to the set list as it's one of my favorites off of 'Four'! The ones I particularly enjoyed dancing to was Kiss You, Diana and One Thing! Night Changes was also beautifully performed! The backdrop was a giant setting moon and lamp posts along the sidewalk and gave off 'A Walk to Remember' vibes! Don't Forget Where You Belong was one of the songs I was looking forward to hearing live because Liam just kills it there with his harmonies. And of course, Better Than Words was another one because, well, Niall's hip thrusts lol. I only wish they would've performed more of their newer songs!

My favorite thing about the boys are their different personalities and how they always shine through, even during their shows. They're casual and make you feel like they're still normal people, just with an abnormal job. (Plus points if you know who originally said that! ;)) 

-Harry Styles - the human birthday chair-

Overall, it was still an amazing concert, despite Zayn's departure. The boys carried the show fantastically and they were always interacting with the audience so it was nice! Cheeseburgers were thrown on stage, the kissing Niam selfie happened, fan signs were read and I could swear that Liam waved at me at some point, but then again given my state of consciousness, I wouldn't believe anything I said to be true at the time lol.

Concerts are something I'd happily splurge on again and again because they make for the best memories. I feel so grateful to have had this opportunity to see some of my favorite musicians perform live! If there's someone you look up to in music, I would highly recommend saving up and watching them live because it's a whole different experience, let me tell ya! :)

-Cute Niam moment-

-Ridiculously beautiful fireworks display after the show-

Let me know in the comments below who you would want to see live; or if you've also been to a concert recently, let me know how it went! I love interacting with other people in the comments so always feel free to leave one! :)