The Price of Fandom [Singapore Writers Festival]

Dawn. Well, it wasn’t even dawn when I was walking from City Hall MRT towards the Arts House. It was about 6.40am that I arrived there and the guards were all resting and sitting in the darkness in the front of the doors.

I had a little book light with me as I walked in the dimness (as opposed to darkness because there was still lights about) but meh, that would be silly.

Yes, tickets to the Neil Gaiman events during the Singapore Writers Festival. He’s appearing on the 31st October and the 1st November. Information was available only via SWF’s Twitter page, Facebook or their blog. So you know, AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! It’s better to check there because obviously if they had to edit html on their main page, it’ll take more time. I’d know this because obviously they’re not web designers and heck, the staff or volunteers of SWF probably at the very least would NOT have access to updating it easily except for whoever’s in charge of it.

In short…

FOLLOW THEIR TWITTER, DARN IT.

Because refreshing their main website is le sigh. Or in other words, you should have known the “way” how these are all organized and plot your way into the events because this is a big major hint for those who don’t know how it works. HMM.

In the end, one person can only get a pair of tickets to one of his events (though to be technical, one out of three is Amanda Palmer’s event but he’s doing a collaboration with her so this also meant her fans had a tough time getting them). I chose the Sunday one because I have my own event to hold on the 31st. Say hello at the Earshot cafe at 2pm, okay? Heh.

By the way, just so you know… I was first in line and then Raven Silvers was second because we were freakish. There were plottings heard that some people wanted to over night but ALAS, due to the F1 races, the security was rather tight. That worked to our advantage too. Roadblocks galore! You had to pass through a mass of fences to get here. Laughter was had by all in the front because we were all being jolly about being there or perhaps that was me starting to get ridiculous because HELLO, 6.40AM I WOKE UP LIKE… Okay, I woke up around 5-ish which is a normal working hour for me but this was Saturday.

Oh joy. It was nearly 11am and these people went past us, lining up outside and towards the statues on the grass. Some of them looked rather pissy but HAH! HAAAH! You guys waited for what, for at least thirty minutes? HAAAAAAAAAA.

Okay, so that was a bit delirious but no matter, the people in the front waited for hours, really. Conversations of Neil Gaiman and of books and fiction writing was had so it was rather fun. From 6.30am till 10am, time passed by very quickly. Once it hit 10am, it felt REALLY slow.

I just walked about for a bit since Raven Silvers was holding my place and my bag was there anyway. This is how it looked from the outside. So yes, a U-turn from the first picture and then past outside in the second picture and this one shows you how it is. Isn’t it lucky that it was a sunny day?

11.10am . The SWF lady came along to the table placing the three stacks of tickets and everyone freaked out because 11.10am is ten minutes past eleven and really at that point people were going aahh at that point.

“Hello!” I said enthusiastically.

SWF lady sat down, or rather she wasn’t really sitting down but just standing up guarding the tickets while looking wearily at us.

“Hello. Which event do you want?” she asks.

“THE SUNDAY ONE! OH YES. THANK YOU! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!” I exclaimed as I received the tickets and twirled around.

Raven Silvers shortly followed after with a pair of Sunday’s tickets too. The really super early morning lot rejoiced and swapped tickets for some didn’t need a pair of the same event but wanted to go to different ones instead.

The tickets finished in twenty minutes. One of my friends was in the back and she said that it was only five or so people behind her that didn’t get it. Fret not. Do not feel to piteous for them for they came around 10.50am or around 11am (maybe 10.30am at the very least since my friend came then). They didn’t wait too long and thus, didn’t get the tickets in theory. TIME IS MONEY, BABEEH and clearly they didn’t spend enough!

And so to the Earshot cafe, I celebrated or rather REALLY needed a drink and had an iced lychee tea. Oh right. You probably want to see how one of the tickets look like. Here.

Hur, hur, hur. By the way, free seating means total rush hour queue again when the event is up. AHHHHHH. Here’s a plus point though, those who’re in the back of the line, sit near the door and they can line up FIRST in the autograph queue when the panel is over. It’s like a reverse balanced thing. No, I don’t have a spare ticket for anyone who wants one but you’ll be sure I’ll write about it when it happens. Heh.

And here, have a look-see. I took this video ten minutes before 11am or so.