A single student rallied a concert crowd to help her select a bloke on a dating app - holding her phone in the air so the whole venue could shout for her to swipe 'left' or 'right'. Megan Barlow was attending a performance of K-Pop artist Eric Nam at the O2 Ritz Manchester on April 12 when she let fellow concert-goers guide her selection of single men until they secured her a match on Bumble.
The 22-year-old soon found herself having to explain the situation to one eligible bachelor chosen by the audience, although he immediately saw the humour in the unusual match-up. Videos of the stunt show the crowd yelling 'Left!' and 'Right!' to each potential suitor and erupting in cheers when they secure Megan a match.
After she shared them online, many fans vowed to pull similar stunts when Eric Nam performed in their town. Although Megan uses Bumble casually and hasn't pursued any relationships with the bloke crowd-selected for her, the multimedia journalism student admits that her fellow music-lovers had 'good taste' in their selection.
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Megan, from Manchester, said: "I went to this gig not knowing anybody at all. What happened at this one was that we were waiting inside the venue for an hour, and we'd been waiting outside for over six hours.
"The energy level was diminishing, people were getting tired. I'd gotten to know some of the girls around me, and we wanted to get the crowd's energy levels up. I think it was my idea to raise my arm up and let the crowd choose my Bumble matches. It worked - it got the level energy up for the entire gig. It was brilliant.
"The crowd were quite in unison when they were telling me which guys to choose. They were saying 'Swipe right' and when I got a match, they'd cheer. The crowd had good taste. That's what's important."
Megan soon found herself explaining the circumstances to one bloke who was selected by the crowd. Megan said: "When the video was being filmed, I couldn't see any of the matches. I only messaged one of the guys I matched with, but nothing really came of it.
"I explained to him what had happened, and he thought it was hilarious. I just use them for fun. I don't even really use Bumble a lot, just here and there. It's a casual thing. I've been on dates on there before but I'm not using it to look for a relationship."
One video documenting the incident has gained more than 100,000 views since it was uploaded to TikTok. Megan said: "When the video got uploaded, it started going viral on TikTok. It's weird but amazing. The girl who filmed me mentioned she was going to be uploading it to TikTok and I remember not thinking much of it.
"She thought it was going to go viral, but I didn't think so. But seeing it go viral has been crazy. Since it went viral, I've noticed a lot of happy reactions around it. I think it's started a trend.
"I've seen fans of Eric Nam say they're going to do it when he tours in Australia. I've had other people saying it was 'brilliant', and they wanted to do it. There wasn't a lot of negativity, which I didn't expect because there's a lot of negativity surrounding dating apps."
TikTok commenters were amused by the spectacle and shared their feelings beneath the video. One wrote: "I am gonna do this [at a] concert". Another user said: "I'm so glad I found this [video]! Me and my friend were wondering what was going on, since we were at the very back of the crowd."
A fellow commenter wished Megan luck by writing: "Omg we were a few rows behind you! Happy you got a date!" The O2 Ritz Manchester have been contacted for comment.
