On 31st March, I took 17 Guides, 2 leaders and a parent helper to Birmingham’s LG Arena for Girlguiding UK‘s Big Gig. The Big Gig is a music event at a major venue exclusively for Guides which Girlguiding UK has been running for 12 years. In the past, it’s also been held at Wembley Arena, Manchester’s MEN Arena and The Millenium Dome.
I’ve taken Guides to Wembley and Birmingham in the past, but it was the first time I’d gone to Birmingham on the train. We come from Hertfordshire so it meant a 9am start to travel into London and out again. 9am on a Saturday is unknown to most 10-14 year olds, so they must have been keen.
Getting the tickets was a lottery to start with. Leaders have to apply and send payment when no acts have been announced, and with no certainty of getting tickets. Every week at Guides, the girls kept asking if we had tickets, and when I was able to tell them that we had them, I was the most popular person in the world!
And so we ended up in Birmingham with around 13,000 other Guides and leaders to see The Saturdays, Rizzle Kicks, Olly Murs, Matt Cardle, Alexandra Burke, Rita Ora, Conor Maynard, Charlene Soraia and presenter Helen Skelton. The atmosphere in the arena was amazing. Loads of flashing bunny ears and thousands of phones held up recording video and taking photos and looked amazing, and the sound of all the screams was deafening.
Even amongst that many people, I even managed a wave at fellow Guide tweeter @CazzyPie. This is her image that she tweeted showing me somewhere!
The next event at the end of this year will be in Sheffield. That’s probably a journey too far for us, but hopefully it will be back to Wembley in 2013 and I’ll be first in the queue to apply.
Thank you so much Girlguiding UK for organising another fabulous Big Gig. It’s another showcase event to make Guiding relevant to today’s girls and something they can be proud to say they are a Guide for.