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14th May 2018

The story of how one chancer blagged his way into Ed Sheeran’s sold out Galway gig

Kate Demolder

They said it couldn’t be done.

It’s now mid-May and officially Ed Sheeran season across Ireland, as the redheaded music maestro has taken the country by storm.

Having already hit up Cork, Belfast and Galway on his monster nine-show tour across the country, Sheeran is now set for Dublin’s Phoenix Park, where he’ll play Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week.

Sheeran performed two Galway shows at the weekend, which saw over 25,000 Sheeran fans take to Pearse Stadium on Saturday and Sunday night.

Joining the crowds on Saturday night was JOE reader Travis Harrison, who got in touch to let us know how he pulled off the ballsiest move of 2018 thus far.

Westport native Harrison moved to Galway this year, where he now lives right next door to Pearse Stadium.

He got in contact with JOE to tell us how the idea of him chancing his arm to get into the gig came to fruition.

“I bought a ticket for the Saturday show months before the concert. [But] I decided, I’d dress up as a steward and go,” Harrison told us.

“Obviously it took a lot more planning. I had to scout around the set-up. I saw the security company. From there and then, I printed off the staff wristbands. I walked straight up to the door at 1.30pm on Sunday 13 May and straight through no questions asked.

“Quite scary, being honest.”

“From there, I was moved into different positions by different stewards,” he continued.

“I spent an hour sitting on the toilet as I didn’t want to go out as I was too scared. I then got ordered to move the crowd to a certain position. This was rather surreal.

“The whole night I spent right in front of the stage helping out. For free! Helped out! And had an absolute cracker of a time.”

What a rollercoaster of a journey.

Harrison, who turns 19 next week, managed to pull off the unthinkable and found room for himself front and centre at one of Ireland’s biggest gigs.

All for absolutely nothing.

Well, except the price of a hi-vis.

This story originally appeared on JOE