Meeting Carrie 4 TIMES! CMA Fest Review!
Wow so this was my first year attending CMA Fest and it was incrediable! It was seriously the best week of my entire life and I completely recommend for all fans who have never experienced it before, to attend next year!! I was lucky enough to go with Nicole who does the website with me, and we had a blast!!
I got into Nashville Monday night, so we checked into the Opryland resort and had to immediately begin getting ready for the fanclub party. We wanted to get there reallyyy early, so that we could get the best seats. Before that though, we checked out the resort and it's like insane. It's HUGEEE for those who haven't seen it. We walked around for awhile and took pictures of anything Carrie that we saw. Luckily, there were quite a few displays. We actually went into the store that had country cd's and we found Carrie's and placed them over everyone else's before leaving. It was the best haha. I wish we took a picture of our little display after we were done.
We decided to get a little sleep before walking over to the Opry, so we got up around 1am. After getting ready quickly, we gathered our things and litrally ran over in the dark. It was freaky. Nicole was like spazzing out and then we both got really nervous because there's this pathway that leads to the Opry from the resort and it's kind of in the woods haha.
When we got to the Opry around 2:15am.. there were already a few people there... not many though! So we were able to be like the second group in one of the lines. That night dragged on SO SLOW. We were all anticipating the party and wondering what kind of surprises were in store. Not to mention, we had no chairs or pillows or anything, so it was impossible to get comfortable on the cement lol. We were so exhausted that night haha.
Once we got into the fanclub party, it was SO AMAZING. The first like 50 people got this HUGE vitamin water commerical. I was so excited about that because I was never able to get one of those. Most importantly, Nicole and I got front row seats, which is what we REALLY wanted! The party was so fun! Seeing Carrie up so close was unreal. She performed AMAZING and she even saw a sign Nicole made. During our long wait in the fanclub line, Nicole made a sign that said "Carrie, it's my belief that you make the world a better place." At first Carrie couldn't read it because she didn't have her glasses on, so she made a notion that she couldn't see. She kind of stepped foward a little bit so Nicole literally jumped up and ran over to carrie to hold the note up to her face and Carrie smiled so big and said "thank you." We both freakedddd out! It was so fun!
Carrie also had both her Opry shows that night, which we attended. I had never been to the Opry before that... so it was awesome to be in that room and see everything in person! Best of all, we got to go RIGHT UP to the stage for both of Carrie's sets! It was beyond AMAZING! We also got to be up there for Little Big Town as well! Both Karen and Kimberly touched our hands.
Before Carrie's second Opry show, a few of us waited out by the buses for Carrie to come out. I kind of felt like a stalker waiting out there but everyone was just really excited to get a glimpse of her. It seemed like she was in that bus forever but she finally came out a little before her set started! So we basically missed the whole second show waiting for Carrie haha. She came over to the gates and signed for us and even took a pic with Nicole and I! It was so funny because Carrie was like "I feel like i'm in prison here" haha. All of us put our hands over the top of the gate for Carrie to reach up and touch them. She did and we all freaked out once again haha.
Right after that encounter, we all literally RAN into the Opry so we could catch Carrie. Thankfully we made it in just in time to see Carrie's whole set! It was great! Everyone was totally there for Carrie you could tell and the energy was amazing!
The softball game was Wednesday and that whole experience was not only fun, but COMPLETELY chaotic. I was literally worried for my life haha. I was in section S and T and many of you know that is where the mob is since Carrie's dug out is by that area. I moved up to the front to wait for Carrie, but so did thousands of other people. At times, I was literally being pushed into the gate and the security guards were GETTING SO angry lol. I was so worried they were going to make us move before Carrie came over. At one point, Chuck Wicks came over and it got so crazy. I was literally being climbed on haha. Luckily, Carrie came over and I got her to sign my photo and QUICKLY take a pic with me. Sadly, I blinked in my photo so my eyes are like half closed
Many of you at the game probably saw the young blonde out there playing that game out on the field. That would be Nicole haha. She got picked to go out there. As many of you saw, she literally put her all into it and it was probably the funniest moment of the night. She was literally being DRAGGED across the field. She just didn't want to lose in front of Carrie. It was SOOO funny! She was on the news for it... and got to meet Carrie right after that. The next day people were coming up to us and looking at her and saying "I saw you on the news!". It was great haha.
Literally RIGHT after the softball game, we headed over to the convention center to wait in line for Carrie meet and greet tickets for the next day. We got there at 9pm and literally camped out all night until the next morning at 8am when they opened the doors. That night was like an eternity. The line got so long so fast! We were able to meet some REALLY cool people though! We meet some fellow fanclub members: Stephanie, Shannon, Kelly, and then two other girls we had been hanging out with: Nicole and Eleanor. We made the night pretty fun! We listened to Carrie on Nicole's ipod speakers and made a timeline. Every hour until like 3am we took a group photo holding up a sign that said what time it was. Sadly after 3am, we somehow gave up. Maybe we were just too tired haha. Luckily we were like 25th in line... so we weren't very nervous about getting in the place.
The funniest thing happened while we waited in line though. There were camera crews going up and down the line every once in awhile filming us.. and at one point CMT radio came by. Nicole had her Carrie tourbook with her... so to be the funny person that SHE IS... she took it and put it to her face. She like put her hair where Carrie's was to try to make Carrie's face be hers and then she started move the pic up and down and talking like Carrie. The CMT had just passed us so they turned around and looked at us like we had legit been drinking or something haha. Everyone started laughing! That whole 5 minute segment that they filmed of us was literally hilarious. I really wonder if this is going to show up somewhere because it was SOOOO FUNNY!
As much as waiting 12 hours on the sidewalk sucks, we made it a really fun experience! It was actually totally worth it... especially once we met Carrie!
After the front doors opened at 8:30am... that's when it got scary. Everyone legit ran through the doors and down the stairs into a hall with another set of doors. Once everyone was piled in... it got really insane. Everyone kept pushing each other and shoving... it just got out of hand... Next year they really need to fix this issue because a lot of people got hurt. Once they opened those last set of doors at 10am... it was like a full on STAMPEED and EVERYONE JUST TOOK off RUNNING. I was holding on to Kelly's(bathroompolo) the whole time so that we wouldn't fall and get trampled on. Unfortuntely a group of girls in the middle front fell and got trampled and had to be taken to the hospital. I have never experienced anything like that in my entire life. The security people were telling me later that they have never seen anything so bad in the past 4 years. They said that line along with Reba's was the craziest it has ever been. Apparently all of the baracades were completely knocked down.
We were able to get a ticket to meet Carrie thankfully so we were all really excited. I was probbaly 5th in line for Carrie's 1st booth signing at 1pm.. so I got to her very early. For the second time... I froze again when meeting her. I had everything planned out that I was going to say but of course nothing worked out haha. I had her sign her Carnival Ride CD along with an official photo that they had out. I remember that I asked her if she went to my website and she said yeah but not in awhile. That was pretty exciting to know that she has actually went to it haha!
A little later, I ran into a guy that had a ticket for Carrie's second booth signing at the Opry booth. He gave it to me and I was able to meet Carrie again!!! It was so incrediable. I was literally jumping up and down when I got that second pass lol. So since I knew I would have another chance to redeem myself anc actually have a conversation with Carrie again, I planned out WHAT I was going to say to her exactly. As usual, once I got up to her I completely frooze yet again haha. I remember saying "Hi again!" and her laughing. She probably recognized me and wondered how the heck I was in line again haha. We got to take a hugging picture and it was awesome! She was SOOOO SWEET!
I was so sad after leaving the convention center because all of the Carrie events were over :/ But it was seriously the best 3 days of my life. I CANNOT WAIT until next year because the trip was totally worth it! I am so glad that country music really dedicates a whole week to the fans like they do. No other genre does this.. and it's just really special for us to be able to connect with our favorites!
__________________
ll 11.03.09 - Get Ready To Play On... ll
Linear Mode
