33 by 33
As adults, we always say “one day I’ll do that”, or “I’ll go see that when I can”, and it just never happens because of life. I really enjoy live music and I always feel better after watching and experiencing a gig, or concert, or theatre show. However last year I wasn’t going to many live music events because I found myself almost not having a “reason” to. So even when I found something and knew I’d like it, I’d find myself becoming one with the sofa at home because it was effort to go out and I could “go next time”.
I realised that if I didn’t set myself a reason to go to these events, that I never would. I decided to set myself the challenge to go to 33 live music events between my 32nd and 33rd birthday. Because why not!
I’ll be honest, it hasn’t been as easy as I thought it would be. It’s required some serious planning, a fair bit of research and raiding the community flyers in every local café in the surrounding area that I could find! Trying to fit 33 events in, when you live in a small town in the Midlands so can’t just “nip into London” or another big city, whilst working a job that has a significant commute and renovating a house has been interesting. I’ve learnt that there are more things mid week than I thought, all the local events always seem to be on the same Saturday and that there is music everywhere once you start to look.
Of course there have been events that I was ridiculously excited for and probably would have gone to even without this challenge, but there have been times when I’ve been driving to an event thinking, “I’m knackered, I’ve got so much going on, I really don’t want to be going to this”. I’ve gone because I’ve got a target to reach, so I made myself go. And I’ve come out of those music events feeling so much better, and balanced, and happier on the whole. It reminds me every time why I set this challenge.
It’s also given me a reason to meet up with friends who I don’t see often, reconnecting me with them because trying to find time as adults to meet up is a mission in and of itself! It’s something that I hope to continue in the future, especially with those friends I’ve not been able to see this past year, or even longer.
I want to finish the challenge with a bang, and what better way than with a party on my 33rd birthday! I want to celebrate it with you all, and my birthday lands on a Saturday this year so it seemed like fate.
With all these events, I wanted to document them as I’ve gone along because there’s no way I was going to keep track otherwise. I set up an Instagram account to share this experience with others, to show the variety of music out there, but mainly it was so I couldn’t loose track of where I was at with it…
If you’re interested in seeing which events I’ve gone to, either click on the below link or scan the QR code to go to the Instagram page, give it a follow and have a scroll through the different posts of the events I’ve been to.
33 by 33 (@33bythirtythree) • Instagram photos and videos
If you’ve got this far reading this, then well done, because I wrote more than I was expecting so thank you for sticking with me until the end!
