Cold play in WA


On our travels around Australia we have discovered that the best experiences to be had in the self-contained RV world are as far away from the city as you can get. There seems to be an inverse relationship between distance from civilisation and the wonder of the real Australia. The joy to be experienced in the far outback of the Northern Territory or the far North of WA (so we're told - we're going next year) is a complete contrast to what is available near the urban centres. Frankly, to experience joy in a city leave the RV and camping gear elsewhere and book into the most luxurious hotel you can afford. Preferably with a spa.

A spa was something we craved through much of our journey across the South Coast, from the Eyre Peninsula to the South Coast of Western Australia via the Nullarbor. We fell into the trap of assuming anywhere in Australia should be starting to heat up as Spring heads towards Summer. Let me tell you there are lots of great places to play, but at this time of year it's cold. Which was kind of prescient as it turns out..

As if to prove the theory Perth was not a place over-endowed with positively reviewed caravan parks. We found a paddock at a horse rescue centre and made a home with the horses for a couple of days before venturing into the city centre caravan park for one night. But what a night it was.

One of the things I do when we know we are going to be in a particular city at a particular time is do a bit of research to see if anything interesting is happening whilst we are there.  And as it happened there was only one thing (ok, two things) happening that weekend in Perth and that was Coldplay concerts at the Optus Stadium. Cold, play ... see what I did there :-) 

So two fully sold out concerts, 65,000 per night and the demand for tickets was estimated at 300,000. Not to be daunted by the statistics I jumped on line and of course Ticketmaster was sold out. But I discovered a resale site called Tixel where I could buy two tickets. A bit pricey admittedly but the site says the tickets can only be sold on their site for 10% over face value. A quick Google suggested that the site is reputable and I took the plunge. Despite admittedly being concerned about the risk of a scam the tickets were in my Apple wallet within minutes. They were expensive because they are what is called 'charity in demand' tickets. As far as I can tell what this means is that some of the tickets are sold at whatever price people are willing to pay and the excess that this creates goes to charity. In the circumstances I'm comfortable with paying over the odds if most of the money is going to charity.

Now the thing about a Coldplay concert is that it is a fantastic show and a joyous occasion for the 65,000 attending. Or in our case 64,999. The woman sat in front of me seemed to have been dragged along by her partner. She really didn't like the sustainability messaging before the concert and when she started to boo as the band appeared I felt compelled to offer her some advice and suggest she went home if she didn't like it. She said she didn't appreciate being lectured and the rest of her party just looked embarrassed. Poor thing, seems she was more of the cold than the play.




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