writtenbycaitlin

Welcome

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I’m Caitlin. I’m 20 and a creative writing student. I started this blog as a way for me to keep up with my writing practice and basically yap about the fun things I have planned this summer. If you’re interested in concerts, travel, and general fangirl things, you might want to keep reading!

I’m also an ambulatory wheelchair user. I have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, PoTS, and endometriosis. I’ll be sharing how these conditions affect my life while I do all these things, and some tips on how I get the most out of the things that I do manage for those who might relate.

The life of a Harry fangirl

I’ve grown up a massive fangirl all my life. I was born with the fangirl gene, and the obsessions started out primarily around two very important interests for me. These were Disney, and One Direction. I started out as a Louis girl, but eventually my love changed to mostly Harry.

I got properly into Harry’s music again in 2021, and Harry’s House changed everything for me. The obsession was reborn.

Then Love on Tour started, and of course I was desperate to go. Unfortunately, I was never able to attend due to my chronic illnesses, and I was devastated. At that time, I’d only just made it back into school, on a reduced timetable, after my health had forced me to take a year out of education. My conditions were still much more unpredictable, and I simply didn’t have the energy to go.

So, the last few years has consisted of me watching Love on Tour livestreams dreaming about being able to go one day, waiting and waiting for him to make a comeback, and praying that I’d be well enough when the time came for his next tour.

Preparing for the concert

The build up to this concert was crazy. I hadn’t been THIS excited since The Eras Tour. I bought my outfit months in advance, watched all the livestreams, and made friendship bracelets.

One part about a concert at Wembley that I hate, is the ticket purchasing experience. I’ll hold off on most of my thoughts about it for now, as I have another article on the subject in the works (look out for that soon!)  But my main complaint is that their accessible tickets process is just completely inaccessible! Thankfully, I ended up managing to get two sets of tickets, one for June 13^th, and another for July 1^st.

Usually, I’d need to take it easier in the days running up to a concert. For a concert of this scale, especially coming nearly straight off the back of a weekend away, I had to minimise my activity as much as possible in the days before. This is to try to avoid over-exerting before I get there and reduce the risk of being ill at the concert and afterwards. On the day of the concert, I needed extra support from my parents, who I live with, with meals and getting ready.

Saturday 13th June 2026 – Wembley Stadium

The journey and pre-show experience

I would have loved to have arrived earlier in the day and made a full day of it. With Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, this is not possible. We didn’t leave the house until past 4pm. This is already longer out of the house than is usually manageable for me. We parked up in Blue Parking, which we pre-booked, at 6:30pm.

Then it was a short walk (or wheel for me), to the Stadium Entrance. I had really wanted to go to the AMEX pop up, and main merch stand on Olympic Way, but looking at the crowd down there, and having no idea what the accessible route to get down there was, I decided that it would be too much for me to manage. We stopped for a few pictures on the way in and then entered the stadium.

On the way in, we used one of the accessible entrances, which didn’t take long to get in- probably about 10 minutes. I applied for a medical exemption for my medical equipment, food/drink, etc, which made bag checks run smoothly, and meant that I had everything I needed in case of an emergency, and to keep me feeling as well as possible through the concert.

Once we got inside, we headed to the toilets. Be prepared for long waits, especially right before an artist comes on, or in breaks. We arrived near the start of Shania Twain’s set. We then went to get food and settled on sharing a chicken and chips for an extortionate £13.50.  I won’t say that it was worth it, but we needed to eat. Next, we headed to our seats.

We were sat in Section 124, Row 28, in seats 28 and 29. This was one of the wheelchair sections. There are seats for companions, and ambulant seating in the surrounding areas. The view was great, and completely unrestricted which had been one of my concerns. At The Eras Tour, I had a massive tower blocking the middle of the stage (where Taylor was A LOT of the time), without any warning that it would be restricted. Thankfully this wasn’t the case, we’ll see next time when I’m in the exact same seat I was in for Taylor.

Shania Twain’s set ended at around 7:50pm, then Harry took the stage at 8:20pm!

The concert

The show was amazing. I was happy with the setlist, especially never having seen him live before.

The setlist includes 10 out of the 12 songs from his most recent album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally.’, 5 from ‘Fine Line’, 4 from ‘Harry’s House’, and 1 from ‘Harry Styles’, as well as a different surprise song every night.

The singular addition from his debut album is the most disappointing part for me, as it’s my favourite album of his, so I would have liked to hear a couple more.

One of the most exciting parts for me was the surprise song. I had a list of a few of the songs that I wanted to hear the most, and I got one of them. He played ‘Matilda’, and it was beautiful. I wasn’t expecting it, as he’d already played it in Amsterdam, so I didn’t think that it was an option.

His outfit was so good. He came out wearing a black suit jacket with dark trousers. Eventually he then took the jacket off to reveal a cropped frilly yellow top. I loved this outfit. The yellow made him pop, and we got some great shots of him from where we were sat!

In my opinion, a ranking of his best performances of the evening should go:

1. Sign of the times
2. Matilda
3. Fine line
4. Aperture
5. Season 2 Weight Loss

Also, a bonus shout out to Satellite x Carla’s song as they’re some of my favourites and it was amazing to hear them live, as well as Dance No More (dance break!).

The show ended at about 10:15. We had an amazing night; it was so much fun.

After the concert

After the show ended, we headed out to use the toilets on the way out (again, the queues built up again, so not the best time to go). Then we started our walk back to the car park. On our way back, we checked some of the merch stands, and I bought some.

The staff were super helpful, and let us up the exit of one of the stands, and at the other we went round the side so that I could see what was available, and they let me buy from the side of the stand, which saved me having to queue in a big crowd that I couldn’t see above.

By this point they had sold out of the pink jersey, which my friend was after, and I found that the Together Together t-shirt that I wanted was the black variant, and that they’re rotating the colours every few days. I decided to ask a friend to pick me the red variant up when it comes in.

By 10:30 merch was secured, and we went back to the car. Getting out of the car park wasn’t too difficult, but we queued a bit getting out of London. I fell asleep on the drive home, and we got back at around 1am.

The after-effects

This show, as much as I had an amazing time, was the prime example of the price you pay for having fun with ME/CFS. For the next couple of days I suffered with one of the worst flare ups that I’ve ever had.

I spent Sunday and Monday completely bedbound, except for using the bathroom. I slept a lot, and when I wasn’t sleeping I was laying in darkness, unable to look at my phone and struggling to talk for most of the day on Sunday.

Unfortunately, despite my careful planning and the sacrifices I made around the concert, sometimes it’s still not enough. Usually, a concert will be a lot for me to handle, but this did more than I’m used to, even when I went to The Eras Tour, it wasn’t as bad as that. Now I’m just wondering whether that’s because my capacity has worsened since then, or if it was just bad luck that this one made me crash so badly.

At first, it scared me a lot. Especially having a second set of tickets. But, just under a week on from then I’m feeling a lot better than I did. By the Wednesday, I felt closer to my baseline, and Thursday I took my first driving lesson in over a year. I’m hoping that with some small changes, next time will go better.

What I’d do differently next time

Having already been once now, next time will be more relaxed.

• Getting ready: I’ll curl my hair the day before and worry less about spending lots of time getting ready to save more energy on the day.
• Timing: I’ll aim to get there sort of last minute again, towards the end of Shania would be ideal. The less time I’m out of the house the better.
• Sleep: I might try to nap on the way there if I can, and definitely on the way home.
• Nerves: Having done it once, it’ll be less stressful for me, as I know what to expect.
• Excitement: Similar situation here, as much as I’m still very excited, I’ll try to relax a much as I can. This unfortunately means avoiding singing as much as I can (what I usually do at concerts, opting to quietly mouth along to the songs instead).
• Food: Take something more substantial with me. The Wembley chicken was okay, but it was spicier than I remembered, and I was worrying that it would trigger my endometriosis. It didn’t, but I’d rather take something with me this time.
• Merch: I don’t have to worry about merch this time, as I already got it!
• Filming: I’ll take less videos (still some!) and save my arm from aching. My joints always hate me for holding my arm up at concerts.
• Earplugs: LEAVE THEM IN THE WHOLE TIME. I took them out for Fine Line and Matilda, which I think was okay, but my mistake was leaving them out for Sign of the Times. Way too loud for me.

I’ll be back there on July 1^st, so follow my social media for more content of that, and from my last show! I also posted a concert bag tour on my insta, so check that out if you need help with what to pack!

Instagram: @written.by.caitin

TikTok: @writtenbycaitlin

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