How to Experience the American Music Awards Without Being a Star

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I am always looking for new experiences, and if I get an idea in my head, it rarely leaves until I accomplish it.  Just ask my husband. So a while back I decided that I wanted to attend an awards show.  I had seen them on tv and could see there were many many people in the audience.  If they could be there why not me? I am a sucker for wanting to meet or even see a celebrity in person.  I don’t know why, maybe just to prove to myself they are no different then me….well, except they are!  Opportunities! Well I decided that I could create my own opportunity.  It seemed like an impossible feat!   I search and searched and finely discovered that you really just have to be at the right place (or search) at the right time!   I really didn’t know when tickets went on sale but I just kept up the search and happened to find some.  Persistence paid off.  I am sure it is much easier for someone in Los Angeles to find tickets but not for little old me from small town Minnesota.

This is what I learned.  I found that tickets are offered through some of the online bidding sites.   I discovered Bidding For Good, and  found tickets for various talk shows and reality shows as well as award shows.   I also found Charity Buzz which offers tickets to shows. Both of these are bidding sites in which the proceeds go to good causes.  You just never know what you might find and how much you will pay.  Once I put in a low bid on a 4 wheeler trip donated by a member of a school district in southern Wyoming, many miles from my state.  I really did not think I would get it because I was the first bidder and then it was going to be turned over to live auction bidding at the school fundraiser.  Oh Gosh, I still ended up winning.  If I lived closer it would have been wonderful but I ended up chickening out.  I did not know whose cabin it was, and who would be taking me on a 4 wheeler out into the woods.  I am sure it would have been a great trip though and was very thoughtful of the people to have donated it to their school.

Another place I have seen awards show tickets are from credit card offers.  I got an email not long ago from Chase that a limited number of tickets were being sold through their special link.  I have also seen Billboard Music Award tickets at Ticketmaster.    All I know is that if there is something that you want, you really really want, you can make it happen.  Do not give up, keep working at it and in some way or form it can happen. It might even be when you least expect it.

On to the show!  So from our small town in Minnesota to LA, my friend Jodi and I hopped on a plane.   (using reward points to discount the tickets) We stayed downtown at the Marriot so that we were walking distance to the awards show which was being held at the Microsoft Theater.  We were really nervous and excited, because were going to see celebrities!  Hours before the show we were able to stand on the red carpet.  Later, when the celebrities came, it was mostly blocked off with fence that you could only see though in tiny spaces.  Enough to see really nothing.  We thought maybe our time would come later.

 

We decided to hang out in the lobby of the hotel and scope it out for people we might recognize. People were having a good time for sure, but no celebrities.  When it was time to go into the Microsoft Theater for the show we all lined up outside in the rain and entered in a door blocked off from the red carpet.  Bummer!  When we went in and got our seats, there were people standing lined up against the walls. I found out they are people that applied to be fillers so that if there was an empty seat they could sit in it.  The awards show started and I thought maybe we would run into a celebrity walking down the aisle.  No luck there either!  They actually seemed to have a separate entrance and exit at each sides of the stage in the front.  It appeared they would not even be walking by us or using our bathroom.

Overall the awards show was very good.  It was like going to a music concert with different groups entertaining us. I got to thinking….  Were the winners really there to be honored for their dedication to music, or to entertain the public?  Probably both, but by the end I realized it was mostly a television show, with producers, scripts and camera mans.

For some reason going to the show made my world seem smaller. I was able to be a part of something that was not in “my little world”   I haven’t decided yet if I need to do it again.  The CMAs would be fun because I love country music, or maybe the Emmys.  Next time I would lower my expectations and not assume I would see a celebrity walking into the bathroom with me.

I am so grateful and blessed for the opportunity to have gone. My advice is if you really want to experience something, don’t give up. Keep trying, searching and saving and you can make your dream a reality.