So a while back someone told me that Live Nation had something called concert week that they were doing. I inquired as to what that was and they told me that you could go to select concerts at a really cheap price. Now I consider myself the concert queen and was surprised I didn’t know this so I had to check it out. Now I forget the exact week that this occurred but that was when I purchased this ticket to see the Janet Jackson at $20 but there was a catch…it was located in Harrisburg, PA at Hershey Park Stadium. Well, I didn’t let that stop me, I figured Janet is a legend and now is probably the only time I’ll see her so I got the ticket. Besides it was in row A. I tried texting my friend to see if she wanted to go but got no answer so I was going solo dolo.
I tried to discover the best way of getting there and driving seemed to be the answer over taking the train or bus. I would get a nice little day/night roadtrip out of it. Everyone asked me, “Who’s going with you” and I exclaimed just me. Today, the day came where it was time for me to make the trip to Harrisburg, PA so I took my car earlier to get a much needed oil change and a brake light replaced and after picking up some food on the road I was (unfortunately during rush hour-which I tried to avoid but it worked out because I didn’t arrive too early). I left DC a little after 3pm and arrived right at 6:30pm and upon entering the parking lot realized I’m going to need to make an early exit so I’m not stuck in this parking lot all night, I mean after all I do at least have a 2 hour drive back to MD.
I arrived and found my seat (or so I thought). I sat for a while and just observed the atmosphere. The crowd was a nice melting pot of people and Hershey Park Stadium is big and open (thank goodness it didn’t rain). After sitting for a while a woman comes and claims I’m in her seat. I look confused as this is where the usher directed me but I had my ticket handy ready to prove her wrong but she was right. My Sec 29, Row A, Seat 31 was about 6 rows back…you mean I’m not in the front row, ugh. Once I moved back it actually wasn’t bad and allowed me to be a little higher up. Now we wait for Janet as the DJ gets us lit.
At about 8:45 the show began and Janet, Ms. Jackson if ya nasty appears on stage and began hit after hit after hit. I honestly think she sang a bit of all of her charting singles because there were some songs that I like of hers that I forgot she sang but when my ears heard them my body started dancing…it remembered. The choreography was on point as usual and while watching her performance realized that Ciara reminds me a lot of Janet. The style of dancing I believe to be very similar because Ciara too can dance. On stage during some of her songs the music video would appear and she would be in sync with it. Being there was like turning on a live Janet Jackson playlist. Some songs were meshed with different familiar beats which gave it a different tone. She didn’t change her outfit too many times maybe about 3. She and her dancers were moving and grooving and she’s still got it. And let me tell you when she performed Scream and had the video playing in the background I about lost my mind! Fun random fact: One year for Halloween I dressed up as Janet Jackson from that video.
Her stage setup seemed simple and showed her live as well as some of the music videos in which she’s done. (The only suggestion that I have is that HersheyPark Stadium get a few more and bring them out towards the higher sections on the side or get bigger ones). At one point and looking back on it now we were probably ⅔ into the show I thought, “If she were to say thank you and goodnight now it still would’ve been worth it.” I guess you can say I was captivated because me leaving early to beat the parking lot traffic didn’t happen. I wanted to see all of it even if that meant waiting to get out of the parking lot a little bit (which I did but considering the amount of people it wasn’t too crazy). I figured I came all this way so I deserve to see it all. Then the show was over there was no encore and you could see people booking it for their cars. It was a great experience and well worth it.
My next show is next weekend Beyoncé and Jay Z.
See video snippet of Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1obpuKuHVDL7af1tioLY9AWb2B8m5NbWb/view?usp=sharing
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