General Admission Chaos Shawn Mendes - On The Road Again Forest Hills

On October 3rd, I had the privilege of going to a Shawn Mendes concert in New York. I remember when the promo for the tour first appeared on my feed; I immediately knew I needed to go. The show itself was amazing and, by far, one of my favorite shows I’ve been to, but the experience of getting into the venue was one of the worst I’ve had.

Forest Hills Stadium is a beautiful place. I’d never been prior to this show, but I’d heard mixed reviews whenever I researched the place. Around the time of the concert, Forest Hills had an assortment of events at their stadium that I believe led to the unorganizedness of Shawn Mendes’ show. All Things Go and Chappell Roan being directly before, considering that their stadium is in the middle of a residential area, there are rules set in place to protect the residents' peace, and I completely understand them; what I didn’t understand, though, was why Shawn’s show and General Admission process was so different from other artists and Chappell’s in particular.

Usually, when I have a concert at a venue I’ve never been I do my research on not only the venue, but on shows that have been played there recently. Chappell was a week before Shawn, and I remember getting TikToks on different people speaking out on how much they loved the wristband process and how specifically they got an email from Forest Hills leading up to the show with rules on how to proceed. When it came to Shawn, there was no information. I was checking all of their social media profiles up until the day before the show, and their comments were filled with fans asking for information about how the wristband process was going to go. It wasn’t until the morning that an announcement was posted on their Twitter that you weren’t to line up until 3 pm to receive your wristbands. When, for Chappell, fans with GA tickets were allowed to show up at 8 am, receive a wristband, and then come back at 3 pm to get let into the venue.

My friend and I showed back up to the venue at 3 to chaos. There was just a herd of people on the sidewalk directly next to the train station, and employees were trying to explain to over a hundred people how the next couple of hours were going to go. There’s only one entrance into the Stadium, and no one was allowed to walk down that street, even kids who lived there who were getting out of school. Eventually, at 3:30, they allowed us in groups to walk towards our area, but when you allow a herd of people freedom, no one is going to listen, so even though there was a no running rule, people went out in a full sprint to the lines. We were asked to split from VIP and regular GA, but that didn’t help either, and honestly, it confused everyone even more. We stood outside in a clump of people for two hours before they let us into the venue. Wristbands weren’t given out until we’d gone through security and were going into the Floor section.

I don’t fault Forest Hills on this at all. I understand the rules in place, and this show made me even further understand why they’re set in stone to begin with. I don’t believe anyone is to blame, but I do think that if we had information earlier, directly from the venue and not third-party sources, it would’ve been a smoother system. The show was amazing, and my friend and I still talk about it to this day. It was the day before my birthday, and I couldn’t have asked for a better present, but I doubt I’ll be going to any more Forest Hill shows. Not only is getting to the venue a hassle, but leaving is a completely different story. This was definitely a one-time experience for me and one that I will never forget If you're interested in videos of concerts I've been to or want to know more about tips if you're going to a show soon check out my TikTok!