Here’s some summer memories from our visitor Danjsutton

“Hi there!

I wanted to share this with you, as I have just experienced the most amazing summer, culminating in the most surreal 24 hours I have ever experienced in my life!

I ended up getting Re-Invented 14 times this summer, and have loved every minute of it. I have spent an absolute fortune on tickets, hotels, train and plane fares, subsidising friends to come with me, but I do not regret a single thing.

I am English, but have lived in Paris for 6 years. I had booked 2 weeks off work this summer during the month of August, but hadn’t booked a holiday yet, and wasn’t really sure what I would do with my time off. Then Madonna announced her tour – and she was going to be in England at the exact same time I was off work. Of course, this meant there was no question as to where I would be spending my summer vacation – back home in England!

I was first Re-Invented in my home town of Manchester, row 11 of block A. It was an amazing experience to be able to sing Happy Birthday to Madonna with 15,000 other fans, and it sent a chill down my spine every time she screamed “Manchester”, just to hear her shout the name of your hometown is amazing, especially since I never thought in my wildest dreams that she would bring a World tour to Manchester! I was also really pleased with my 11th row seats, and told myself that I’d never be that close to Madonna again. Little did I know.

Well, the urge got the better of me, and I ended up seeing Madonna at both shows in Earls Court, and all four shows at Wembley. On Wednesday 25th I was Block A4, row 4, right infront of her when she sings Nothing Fails and Crazy For You. It was so amazing to see her so up close, and I couldn’t believe I had got closer than my 11th row tickets in Manchester. Again, I told myself that I’d never be that close to Madonna again. Again, I was wrong.

I had enjoyed the concerts so much (Re-Invention is a BRILLIANT tour!!!) that I extended my vacation by a day, and flew back to Paris via Dublin – of course so I could go to Slane!! I was glad I saw the concert in Slane, just because it was such a different experience to all of the indoor venues. I personally didn’t enjoy it as much though, and thought it was much more suited to the intimacy of a “small” (15,000-18,000 capacity) arena. This is just my personal opinion though, as I know that some people had a truly amazing time at Slane.

So, back to Paris, and back to work. Four more nights of being Re-Invented, and I have to say the French crowd were wild!!! Such a great atmosphere, and Madonna seems to love performing there. The week seemed to go so quickly, and before I knew it, I only had one concert left to go – in Arnhem.

I had originally bought 2 tickets for Arnhem through the Icon Presale, but could not find any friend that wanted to go with me. I decided I would not go (12 times already was enough!!), and tried to sell them both on this website, but no-one was interested in buying them as a pair. However, one triber, Fabien from Mexico who was currently staying in Germany wanted to buy one ticket. So in the end, I decided that I would sell him the ticket, and go to the concert with him (its always nice meeting up with fellow Madonna fans!!)

We both travelled to Arnhem on the Wednesday, and soon enough we were inside the Gelredome partying away. It was Fabien’s first ever Madonna concert, and it was so great to see his reaction to the show!! (I hope you’re reading this Fabien!!)

The concert came and went, and the following day (Thursday) I was preparing to travel back to Paris, and Fabien back to Germany. We were talking about how great the concert was, how we’d love to see it again, and then we were talking about the pit, and how amazing it must be to see the show from there. Before we knew it we had talked each other into staying an extra night in the hope of seeing the show again!!. This meant I had to book a flight for 7am the following morning in order to be back in work in Paris on time (thank God for KLM student fares and for my, ahem, slightly forged student cardâ?¦ *blush*). So I would have to get up at 5am to get the flight, it all seemed a bit crazy considering we didn’t even have concert tickets for that night.

We headed down to the Gelredome, asked a few touts how much they were selling tickets for, and then hung out by the door for Dance Pit competition winners. I had read about Alison on this site, and thought maybe we could try our chances. According to the notice on the wall, winners had to meet at 6.30pm. At 6pm there were only a few people in line, and so both myself and Fabien started getting really excited. However, within the next 15 minutes, about 35 competition winners arrived, and so did about 15 other people who weren’t winners, but like us, wanted to try their chances with Alison. My heart sank, I thought there was no way it was going to happen for us now.

Eventually Alison came out, and asked for competition winners only, and asked the rest of us to stand back. She led the winners away through a door and left the rest of us outside. Among the 15 of us that were left waiting outside, several had already been in the pit – and several times. This seemed selfish to me – how about giving other fans the opportunity??
I decided there was no way we were going to get in, and told Fabien we should start trying to get a ticket from a tout before it was too late. Fabien just said “No, I’m not leaving this spot until Alison comes out and tells us we can’t go in. Then I will leave”.

THANK YOU FABIEN!!!!!!

After what seemed like an eternity Alison came back out, everyone immediately pounced on her, but to my sheer joy, she told us that if we had already been in the pit then we could not go in again, as it was someone elses turn. Before I knew it, she had picked me and Fabien, along with 8 others, out of the crowd, and we were inside having the pit “do’s and don’ts” read to us. I couldn’t believe this was happening to us!! It was like some sort of crazy dream!! Thank God we had talked ourselves into staying in Arnhem an extra night!!

Alison was really lovely, and was so fair in the way that she let people into the pit who hadn’t already been in. I couldn’t stop myself, and gave her a big kiss!!

We were then led into the pit – myself and Fabien were in the right pit. We just couldn’t believe what was happening!! I was supposed to be on my way back to Paris, and here I was, about to see the concert for the 14th time, but this time FROM THE DANCE PIT!!! I couldn’t believe I had gone from 11th row to 4th row to Dance Pit!! Surely I had to be dreaming, but sure enough, after about an hour, Madonna emerged from that famous hole in the stage, winked at us, and then launched into Vogue.

The rest of the evening just flew by, and felt like some sort of crazy dream. Watching Madonna lying down on the moving conveyor belt, 10cm from my face, singing Nobody Knows Me. Seeing her taking off her headband after Deeper and Deeper and mouthing the words “Do you want it?” to us followed by a big cheeky smile. Touching her hand 3 times as she went past and high-fived us. Seeing her sweat, her big beautiful eyes, her smile, from so close!!!!! Making loads of eye-contact with Donna and seeing her smile and wave back at me. Holding hands for about 5 seconds with one of the female dancers during Holiday. Seeing Madonna and her dancers under the stage during costume changes and after the concert was over.

Donna and Siedah and the rest of the dancers were also truly brilliant. Entertaining us whenever Madonna was at the other side of the stage, winking at us, smiling at us, pulling funny faces, high-fiving us.

What a blast. What a truly amazing night. What a way to round off my Madonna summer. Fabien, I’m so glad that I got to share this truly amazing experience with you, it was the most amazing night of my life and I just can’t stop thinking about it!!

If you have read this to the end, thank you!! I’m sorry if I bored you, but I just had to get my feelings written down.

I also wanted to say a HUUUGE thank you to MadonnaTribe, as I am more than certain that none of this would have ever happened to me without you, so THANK YOU, this website is truly wonderful, and is so important to us fans.

And of course, thank you to Alison and Madonna, for making my dream come true.”