Rockin’ and Rollin’ at the Stones, Part 1

Without a doubt, the best concert I have been to in my life…haven’t been to many, but I know this one will remain up there for decades for me. It was a late decision to even go. I hadn’t gone to many concerts over the years, and no REAL ones, on concert grounds with a HUGE band. So when I heard that The Rolling Stones were going to be playing in Moncton, it was well after the tickets were sold. Hmmm…what to do…I checked e-bay and low and behold, a ticket was located…anyhow, fast forward to leaving work on Friday at noon to drive to Moncton with my friend K. to meet other friends, T. P, and her nephew, N. Finding the campground was easy enough and we didn’t have to wait in line to sign in as T. had picked up campground bracelets for us already and just got out of line when we pulled up – WHOO HOO!

Set up was easy…no trees to hammock from, so slept in the car. The others set themselves up and then the drinking began for the evening portion at the campground. Spirits were charged as everyone at the campground was hyped up over the concert tomorrow. Beausejour Campground was reportedly the Official Campground of The Rolling Stones concert in Moncton. Lots of characters there, but overall a pretty tame crowd. There was the guy in the next site who was cranked on something, dancing by himself around the fire (and over the fire, in the fire, threw his shirt in the fire, leaned over and scorched the hairs off his chest) and when he came down off of that, he was really drunk and fell down numerous times, and limped through the following morning.

I stayed up until about 2am, and then crawled into bed, running things through my mind as people do as they drift off…when a simple thought trickled through my sleepy head “Where’s my ticket?” “Where did I put it” and then when realization set in that I had left it on the top of my desk at home in Cape Breton, a resounding FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKK was heard throughout the campsite…

So I was off to wake the girls and freak out with them, we brainstormed the whole thing and came up with a whole lotta nothing and I was resigned to driving home in the morning and missing the concert. I didn’t have a lot of money to go buy a new one, and it was just a bad scene all around….could’t believe my STUPIDITY. Anyhow, we woke up in the AM with P. who discovered that her brother and his wife were driving though my hometown area as we spoke, and we arranged for them to get the ticket and try to meet up later at the concert grounds, outside the gate. WHEW…little nervewracked thinking about getting the ticket, but felt a little less hopeless about the situation. I had even made a sign to carry around – NEED TICKET!

We finally got ourselves together to get the shuttle ($20 return) to the concert grounds at Magnetic Hill, just outside of Moncton. Met a couple of characters on the bus, and got there in 20 minutes, where we hung out under a lovely tree for 3 hours, hoping to meet up with P.’s brother. After 3 hours, they were still only trying to get to a parking lot, never mind the long hike up to the grounds, and what gate were we even at??? When an angel crossed my path…yet another friend of P.’s (she seems to know EVERYONE) was strolling by with a handful of tickets to sell, cheap, so I picked one up for $20. So now I am in $105 for my ticket, still less than the others I went with, and I phoned the gal who had mine, and told her to go ahead and sell it if she can.

WHEW. LETS GO PEOPLE!!! I HAVE MY TICKET!