A Belfast woman has told of her shock and delight to have had her tickets for a Billy Joel concert in New York upgraded to front row.
Hannah Alexander is currently on a five-day trip to New York with friends Alex Usher-Rea, Alice Patterson and Zara Grant, as they all belatedly celebrate their 30th birthdays following the pandemic.
As a few of her friends are huge Billy Joel fans, the girls booked tickets for his concert at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
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Describing their original seats as "at the very back and costing £100", Hannah and her friends were "shocked" when they arrived late at the venue and were upgraded to front row seats.
"We arrived at Madison Square Gardens and were actually five minutes delayed getting in as our original tickets wouldn't scan, because of our friends cracked phone screen, so we had to wait at the side until we got sorted," Hannah told Belfast Live.
"We started walking up the stairs to our seats - which were right up in the gods near the back - and this guy popped out of a door and called us over. He said he would like to give us something and handed us four front row tickets, right for the very centre.
"He said Billy was sick of the mega rich people sitting in the front rows looking bored so he now reserves the front two rows for proper fans and surprises them at every show.
"We were in total shock! Out of 20,000-plus people we were the lucky four chosen! Two of my friends are absolute mega fans so they cried and then laughed out of shock and then cried again!"
Speaking about the concert, Hannah said it was a "total once in a lifetime experience", as the 72-year-old singer played for two and a half hours straight.
She continued: "Proper old school entertainer! We danced the whole night and were constantly up on the big screens.
"It was a total once in a lifetime experience - we feel so lucky."
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