 |
III. The line for tickets, May 11, 1999 On Monday, May 10, we visited the Continental Theatre (The biggest and best in Colorado), to find a tent outside the front door, holding a young man named Brian, who had spent the night. On Tuesday morning, we stopped by again, and there were still only 10 tents. Brian's was empty. He was probably getting breakfast or something. That day, after work, at about 4:30, I arrived at the theatre to find about 70 tents already set up in front of me. Luckily, my group had gotten there a bit earlier, so we were group # 47. |
That night was basically non-stop, with light sabre fights, trivia games, Star Wars songs, and helicopter circlings. My 6-year old daughter, Angel, spent about 5 hours with me, until it got down to about 40 degrees, when Heidi took her home. The low that night was about 35 degrees. It was cold. Because I had gotten there so late, my tent was on a hill, and I kept sliding to the bottom. It was very uncomfortable, but I still managed to get a couple of hours of sleep.
The next day, there were about 900 people in line, stretched not only to the end of the parking lot, but across to the other side as well. Some people didn't even have tents in the bitter cold, and I felt for them. The reporters showed up early in the morning, and most were there all day. I don't think I was ever on camera. Angel came back around 8:30, and stayed until we got tickets at about 1:00.
By the time tickets were sold, there were well over 1000 people, but I think we all were surprised that plenty of tickets were available. Even the first day didn't sell out. The three big shows, 12:01 am, 7:00pm, and 10:15pm sold out, but anything else was still available. I got 21 tickets total. Me and another person from the group (Jerry), came back after work and helped clean up. It was a disaster area.
