Rocking out in Europe: How I watched 9 concerts across 8 cities in 11 days and survived
The writer was on a whirlwind trip across Europe to catch as many concerts as time and money allowed. The journey would take him to various cities in Italy, Germany, UK, and the Czech Republic, all in a span of two weeks.
by Tung Yon Heong · CNA · JoinRead a summary of this article on FAST.
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“Wh...what? There’s no AC in this place?”
That was my baffled response to the usher after he informed me that the venue had no air conditioning.
I was at the O2 Academy Brixton in Brixton, UK, the iconic venue that had hosted many legendary gigs, including The Smiths’ swansong performance. It was near the end of June, and evidently, Europe’s summer was kicking into overdrive early.
Without any proper ventilation, the hot, stuffy air was leaving me light-headed, and the hall wasn’t even half full yet. I wondered if it was worth risking a heatstroke just to see one of my favourite indie bands of the noughties, LCD Soundsystem, but I figured a trip to the hospital would probably be covered by my travel insurance.
Despite the discomfort, I was still pretty pumped. As I bobbed my head and tapped to the rhythm of their infectious, soaring synth-laden tunes, the unbearable heat soon faded into the background. I was in high spirits, in sync with the groove, in sync with the good vibes.
But the euphoria could only fend off the stifling air for so long. So as the band launched into New York, I Love You But You Are Bringing Me Down – the fourth song of their encore – I decided to slip out quietly.
I needed all the rest I could get before I head up to Manchester the next day to see Britpop legends, Pulp – my sixth concert in six consecutive days.
HOW I GOT HERE
I was on a whirlwind trip across Europe to catch as many concerts as time and money allowed. The journey would take me to various cities in Italy, Germany, the UK, and the Czech Republic, all in a span of two weeks.
It was an ambitious holiday that was six months in the making. Initially, I was eyeing just two concerts in the summer: Bruce Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams tour and the Forever Now festival, a UK-based event featuring luminaries from the 80s indie/post-punk era such as The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Damned, Johnny Marr, and more.
But as more artists announced their summer dates, I began to look into packing more gigs into my trip.
For context, summer is peak gig season for Europe. It is common for many (often big-name) acts to be playing in the same city on the same night. Renowned music festivals, including UK’s Glastonbury Festival and Germany’s Wacken Open Air, are also held during that season.
So like many other concertgoers, I was soon swept up in a ticket-buying frenzy.
FULL CONCERT LIST
Between Jun 16 and 26, 2025, the author caught these shows:
- Duran Duran in Rome, Italy
- Deftones in Milan, Italy
- Bruce Springsteen in Frankfurt, Germany
- Wilco in Dachau, Germany
- LCD Soundsystem in Brixton, UK
- Pulp in Manchester, UK
- The Psychedelic Furs; Johnny Marr; Billy Idol; The Damned; The Jesus and Mary Chain; and Kraftwerk at the Forever Now festival in Milton Keynes, UK
- Nine Inch Nails in Milan, Italy
- AC/DC in Prague, Czech Republic
THE FIRST CHALLENGE – BUYING TICKETS ONLINE
I am not going to sugarcoat it: Navigating the multitude of ticketing platforms in Europe can be onerous if you are not a local.
Take, for example, Italy’s TicketOne platform. If you are using the app, there is no option to switch from Italian to another language as far as I know. So you can either hop on the website to book tickets in English, or keep taking screenshots of the different booking windows in the app and throwing them into Google Translate.
Personally, I found it easier to do the latter as I wanted to be sure that I had the ticket in the app.
Sometimes, the booking process can still be convoluted even if it’s in English. After buying my Pulp concert ticket through Ticketmaster for their performance at the Co-op Live in Manchester, I still had to download the venue’s app to access it.
This would have been a non-issue if the user experience hadn’t been so horrible. Many people, including me, had trouble retrieving their tickets until a couple of weeks before the gig (imagine travelling thousands of kilometres with this uncertainty hanging over your head).
RESELLING OR BUYING RESALE TICKETS
Compared with Singapore, there is probably a lower chance of getting scammed or paying exorbitantly for tickets on the resale market due to a swathe of reselling options.
For one, official ticket distributors like Ticketmaster, TicketOne, and Eventim allow ticketholders to directly resell them to other fans on their platform or through their official resale platform (currently, Ticketmaster in Singapore does not provide reselling).
In some instances, event organisers may also cap the price of the resale tickets so fans get a fair deal. Third-party platforms like Ticketswap also cap the prices of their resale tickets to prevent scalping.
Pro tip:
Unless you're trying to catch Taylor Swift, it’s okay to wait until the last minute to buy resale tickets. As you get closer to the date of the performance, you will see fans who can’t make it list their tickets. And because some of them may be desperate to sell, ticket prices may dive below market value!
That said, it’s not all plain sailing. I had a Kafka-esque interaction while trying to sell a ticket on a German resale platform. After finding a buyer, I was unable to transfer the ticket because, as the official email reply stated, “You cannot offer mobile tickets for sale through fanSALE, as the delivery must be done via a physical ticket through UPS”. The italics are mine to illustrate the absurdity of the situation.
Sometimes, you have to resort to unconventional means to get tickets. When the Nine Inch Nails gig in Milan was sold out, and no good resale tickets were available, I turned to an Italian fan group on Telegram, which I found on Reddit, to scour for tickets. Eventually, one kind soul responded to my plea in English and informed me of a new batch of tickets that had just been released on the official platform, and I promptly snapped one up.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Even if you are a veteran concertgoer, mishaps are bound to happen if you are gallivanting across many cities and venues on a tight schedule.
Train timings in Europe can be unreliable. When I was travelling in Germany via the Deutsche Bahn, every single train that I booked either got rescheduled or cancelled. Thankfully, I was able to reach the concert venue just as the band was about to play. A similar incident played out when I was travelling up to Manchester from London.
The trick to this is to stay calm, reach the station as early as possible, and hop on to whatever train takes you to your destination. Always, always, always factor in possible delays.
Finally, if you are in a foreign country, do as the locals do. After the Forever Now festival ended, I decided to walk to a bus stop to book a ride via their ride-hailing app, Bolt, thinking I could save some money this way instead of joining the official taxi queue.
Big mistake.
For some reason, drivers were finding it difficult to locate me. So after several failed attempts of securing a ride, I decided to make the 30-minute journey on foot back to my hotel, in the dark of the night – not the wisest decision. To top that off, my phone’s battery was nearly drained. If it weren’t for a few other concertgoers heading in the same direction, I might have experienced a mini panic attack.
Beyond that, the weather can be pretty capricious. At the same festival, the organisers warned of a scorching day ahead and advised concertgoers to apply lots of sunscreen.
It turned out to be an overcast and chilly day. Since I was decked out for sunny weather, I can’t say I was too pleased when dusk brought in a cold snap.
THE EXPERIENCE IS PRICELESS
Minor setbacks aside, the joy of catching so many of your favourite acts in a span of days is unsurpassable. Imagine opening a new Christmas present every day, for two weeks, and receiving everything you wished for.
Sure, it can be an exhausting experience. Packing, unpacking, rushing to catch the train, rushing to the venue. But to join a chorus of fans belting out lyrics you know by heart, to see a band play at an intimate outdoor venue backdropped against a Renaissance-era church, to headbang and raise your metal horns to an iconic rock tune.
Such priceless experiences will forever be etched in your memory.
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