On Monday the 18th of March my best friend, Clarissa and I travelled up to Manchester as we had tickets to see Nicki Minaj live in concert.
We left at about 9am and had a 5 hour drive ahead of us, of course Clarissa drove as we know I am not the most confident of drivers. We could check into our hotel from about 2pm. Once we checked in we decided to get ready there and then. Our room was bog standard. Beds, two sockets, a shower (that opened literally right into the bedroom) and a cupboard toilet. But for £30 it was great. All we really needed was a bed for the night. once ready, headed into Manchester for some drinks before the concert.
I decided on a white bodysuit (PrettyLittleThing), Pink highwaisted trousers (PrettyLittleThing), white boots (Boohoo) and my Denim jacket (Boohoo). Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of this outfit as by the time I was ready we had to head straight out the door. 2.5 hours later, we called a taxi and we were ready to head into the centre.
As you know if you have read ‘Our trip to Manchester’ and ‘Our trip to Cardiff’ Ieuan and I loved The Alchemist and with one being 10 minutes away from Manchester Arena I suggested that me and Clarissa go there for cocktails and some food before the concert. Our table was booked for 4:45.
Again, I enjoyed it so much. We both has chicken in a basket as our meal. I had been extremely anxious and felt super sick all the way up until now but I managed to eat my food, which I am super pleased about as it was lush. Between us we managed 6 cocktails before it was time for us to head to the arena. I had ‘The colour changing one’, ‘Aperol crumble fizz’ and ‘pornstar martini’. Clarissa had ‘solero’ (which we found out after was also classed as a pudding so not the best to have before your meal), ‘peaches and cream’ and ‘pornstar martini’. When we were done we paid and called another taxi to take us to the arena.
The concert was due to open at 18:30 and as we had seats we didn’t feel the need to rush in as we didn’t need to ‘find a good spot’ like you do when you are standing. We had headed over a little later and were worried about queuing in the rain. But there was no queue, we had our tickets checked and went through security with ease.
We grabbed some drinks and headed to our seats. Which were great by the way! We were 6 rows from the front and not too far away at all. Ray Blk was the first supporting act, we enjoyed her, although we didn’t really know her songs. We went to the loo just as she ended and Clarissa grabbed another drink. Juice Wrld was the second supporting act and it’s fair to say we didn’t enjoy him much. We knew none of his songs and they were all about drugs so, they didn’t really appeal to us. But he did get the crowd going. As he was ending we decided to go for another wee before Nicki, so that we didn’t need to go while she was on. After that we took to our seats, and waited, and waited. She was due on at 21:00, we waited, and waited. It got to about 21:20 and we decided to go for another wee and some more drinks. By 21:40 Nicki came out.
In all honesty, she was incredible. The whole time I was in awe of the fact that we were seeing her right there in front of us, in person! She sounded just like she does on the recorded tracks she releases. She played some of my favourite songs, including oldies, classics and new. She was such a performer, her dancers were incredible. She had 4 stops/outfit changes through out but didn’t seem tired at all. It was unbelievable!! She really connected with the crowd as well, chatted and spoke to us and even got one lucky boy up on stage. It was just the best night ever!!
By 23:30ish it was all over. The confetti cannons were empty and she had exited the stage. We left pretty easily and called for a taxi. As it was so super busy with everyone leaving we were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find one. But we found one pretty easily and got in. It took a little longer to leave as of course the traffic was manic but by 00:00 we were all snuggled up in bed.
After a surprisingly good nights sleep we woke up at around 8:00 and although check out was not until 12:00 we had such a long drive home we decided as we were awake to just get ready and go. So we checked out and made our way 5 hours back to Pembrokeshire after a pretty incredible trip (that I am still catching up from now)!
I think Beauty was happy to have me home!
Beth x
Beth Than Perfect 