Once you’ve survived the journey, you’ll enter the O2’s “entertainment district”. This is a shopping mall on steroids, with restaurants, a cinema, and an outlet store that sells discounted happiness. You will be tempted to buy a £12 burger. Resist. The real magic is the queue for the security check.
Be nice to the security guards. They are the unsung heroes of concert-going. They’ve seen everything: a man trying to sneak in a full-sized ukulele, a woman with a bag of live crickets, and a teenager crying because she forgot her ID. Do not be that person.
And when you finally step into the arena, past the smell of stale beer and hope, remember: you made it. You conquered the tube, the cable car, or the boat. Now go enjoy the show. Just try not to spill that £9 lager on the stranger next to you who clearly paid even more for their ticket.
