from the box office queue to the kiss pit: a love letter to my first harry styles pit experience
Samantha Colleran, November 2026
saturday, october 24, 2026. a day that will forever go down in history as one of the best nights of my life. some may call me crazy, but the crazy paid off in the best way possible. as a longtime fan of harry, i can finally tick off my first pit experience from my concert bucket list. there’s too much to talk about, i don’t think i could ever fully capture the magnitude of what this night meant to me. i tried, which you can read below if you so choose.
playing the waiting game
my friend nicole and i spent 14 hours (yes, 14 hours) waiting for pit tickets. we got to msg at 5:30 in the morning, made some friends, and spent the whole day waiting. and waiting. waiting some more, and then a little bit more. finally, all of our waiting paid off at 7:30pm when kiss pit tickets were sent to my ticketmaster account.
we were determined. there was a point where we weren’t sure if we were going to get tickets, but it ended up working perfectly. we said no to a pair of lower bowl tickets, and we thought we lost our chance. we didn’t. we were given an msg miracle. we played the waiting game, and it added up to absolutely everything and then some.
some notes/tips for box office:
1. the box office opens at 12pm, but people begin waiting earlier. msg employees move you around 10-10:30am from the sidewalk to just outside of the venue’s main entrance and give you wristbands. for shows where the demand is higher, you definitely want to get there as early as you can. nicole and i were somewhere around 50th in line with a 5:30am arrival time. our wristband numbers were 108/109 and 110/111 because some people in front of us were trying for two tickets, the max you are allowed to purchase. don’t panic if your wristband number is high!
2. things you should bring with you:
-a change of clothes. getting there early doesn’t necessarily mean you will get tickets right when the box office opens. we were able to fit a change of clothes in our tote bags and change once we were inside.
-food. snacks. WATER.
-blankets/extra layers if it is cold out
-a portable charger (or seven if you’re nicole)
-essentials- phone, wallet, credit/debit cards (msg is cashless), id, etc.
3. a reminder to please be kind to the employees! high demand events can be very stressful and the people managing the queue are just doing their jobs to keep things running smoothly. also, please clean up after yourself. msg is a beautiful place and it deserves to be treated as such. <3
treating people with kindness
one of my favorite things about being a harry fan is the community. fourteen hours in close quarters will bond you with people in a very unique way. we spent so much time getting to know each other; hearing the distance each of us traveled, how we met the friend/s we came with, why we’re fans of harry and are willing to spend an entire day waiting for the chance to see him perform. we took care of each other, making sure everyone had water and food, holding spots if someone had to step out of line for a few minutes, sharing hand warmers and blankets so nobody got cold. i think harry would be proud of the way we looked out for each other.
it was so beautiful watching real fans show genuine excitement for each other when they came out of the box office with tickets. people hugged and jumped for joy with their friends, celebrating their win. we booed the resellers who got inside, we cheered when they gave up and left the line. when we got into the venue, we saw some of our friends who we met while queuing and they were so happy for us. tracey, our lovely florida mom who kept saying how happy she was to see us. our friends paulina and zuza who ended up in the kiss pit with us. olandra, who we spent the whole day with but got separated from once we got tickets. a couple of other girls ahead of us who scored lower bowl tickets on their second day of being at the box office, making october 24th their first ever harry show. the lovely mom in the kiss pit who was with her daughter for her 16th birthday who saw nicole and i dance and sing our hearts out and said how fun it was watching us enjoy ourselves. the medic who told nicole and i we looked like we were having the most fun out of anyone in the kiss pit. (we were!)
i need to take an entire paragraph to talk about the absolute greatest person we met that night. lyric, the most wonderful msg employee i have ever come across. there is so much i can say about the kindness she exuded, her genuine investment in our box office journey, the dedication to getting tickets in the hands of real fans. she went above and beyond to make sure we got exactly what we wanted out of our night. she checked in on us, kept us updated on the ticket availability and remained transparent during the entire process, allowed us to go back to our spot in line after our first attempt at tickets didn’t pan out the way we had hoped, and she came inside right after we bought our tickets to make sure we were able to purchase them smoothly. there are many great people who work at msg, but lyric is truly in a league of her own. i don’t think we would have had the experience we did without her, i am eternally grateful our paths crossed.
(if you are an msg employee reading this, lyric’s favorite artist of all time is drake. if drake does a show at msg in the future, please do whatever you can to get lyric on that damn stage with him.)
there were countless people who responded to my stories or messaged me on the side during and after the show to tell me how genuinely happy they were for me to finally get on the floor. to be recognized as a person who cares so deeply about an artist, and to know there are people rooting for me to be able to have an experience like this melted my heart and filled me with so much gratitude. i am floored by all the love i’ve been shown about my kiss pit win. thank you endlessly for your kindness. <3
you’ve got the cinema: the highlight reel
simply being at a harry show is enough to make my heart happy and fill me with a deep sense of joy that lasts for days at a time. being in the pit for a harry show has always been a goal of mine as a fan of 15+ years. i’m thankful to be able to witness him perform from anywhere, but getting to be so close to the stage and watch this person i adore so deeply do exactly what they were meant to do is the honor of a lifetime. just writing about it has moved me to tears. i waited so long to have an experience like this, and it was beyond worth it. the pit felt so unattainable with the high demand of these shows and out of control resale prices, knowing i was finally able to be there is something i am so thankful for and will never take for granted. to many, it’s just a ticket to a show. for me, it felt like winning the lottery. i’ve been riding the high for over a week, i hope the joy i’m feeling never leaves me.
feeling the floor shake during “kiwi” was an out of body experience. hearing “carla’s song” and “sign of the times” so close to the stage, two songs that have been out for different lengths of time but carry the same emotional weight and serve as mantras for my everyday life, was life changing. i got to hear the voice delivering the new just a few feet away from me, “it’s all waiting there for you”, “remember everything will be alright”. having the room to jump around and dance with nicole and our kiss pit friends was so beautiful. it felt like the complete embodiment of what together, together is supposed to be. sweating, dancing, crying a little (a lot if you’re me), celebrating each other.
right before aperture, one of harry’s dancers, aysia, walked by the barricade and handed me mitch’s pick. i’m not sure how she determined i was the chosen one, but i am so incredibly thankful for it. i’ve been keeping it close to me, along with my kiss pit wristband. both items feel too special to be far away from at any given point.
i know i’d do it again
would i do the box office thing again? it’s certainly not for the weak. it’s a long day, and it’s a complete gamble depending on what they have available the day you go. if it’s a harry show, any amount of time is worth it to me. i’d absolutely do it again.
as always, i am so thankful for harry. so many people i know are because of a common appreciation for his music, and he continues to provide me with some of my favorite life experiences. i am so lucky to be a fan of his.