The rest of the Home Free weekend 2023

[sally_maria]

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The first few songs of the London concert, the Sunday evening, from the official livestream.



I'd made plans with another local fan who was going to all the shows for them to give me a lift - another fan was coming over from Norway, and they had a place in their car. But then on the Thursday they'd gone to Wales for a couple of days and were in a car accident, which wrote off their car, and while none of them were seriously injured, they were in A&E for hours, and not feeling up to the first (Birmingham) concert at least. Fortunately it was the closest one, and in a city I feel reasonably at home in, and I was able to meet up with some other fans I knew from online so I wasn't there on my own.

I stayed over in Birmingham, but on the Saturday there was a train strike, so I'd had to book a coach instead. The plan was it would get me there for about 4pm, and I could meet up with some other online friends who were going their local show in Manchester. By this point, I'd heard from the original friends, who were feeling well enough to drive to the show in their courtesy car, and I'd meet them there.

Trouble is, the traffic and the weather was awful, the coach was over an hour late getting to us, and two hours late into Manchester - made it in time for the show, but not the Q&A beforehand. Still, got to at least say hello to the friends in the interval, and the show was great, as expected. Afterwards, I wound up speaking to their merch manager, and tell him how happy Aji would be the crew were still using their artwork for their ID (Aji_chees, who drew my default icon).

I was sharing a hotel room with the fan from Norway, it was nice to meet her, to eat something, which I hadn't managed with the rush, and to get some sleep.The drive from Manchester to London was long and rainy, and we didn't have a lot of time, but we got to the hotel in time to drop off our stuff, and realise they'd given us a double room this time, rather than a twin - at least we weren't sharing a bed the first night we met. :-)

But then we got to the venue - to meet again the friends from Birmingham, more online friends and one of the reactors I've been following since lockdown - Qofy - who was there for the Q&A as well. And since they were livestreaming the show, to chat to friends online who were watching the stream. And to share the music once more with a theatre full of people all feeling the love - it was a pretty magical experience.

Would I do it again? Absolutely - they've been talking about next year for their next European tour, and I hope to be there whenever I can. (Wearing my Longest Johns shirt, as I promised...)