As I stepped out of my house for the concert I couldn’t help being flattered by a random lady walking in my neighborhood saying “Y’all going to the Beyoncé concert? Y’all look great!”.
As we pull into the Northwest Stadium I can’t help that this has more of the vibe of a playoff football game than a concert. There are tons of people tailgating and grilling – it is still 5 hours until the actual show.
Once we walk out to the actual stadium to get in the line we realize that the line is so long that it wraps around like a slinky.
Oh wait…that’s just the line to get to the merch trucks, the line to get into the actual stadium is much longer. Once again, it is still 5 hours until show time.
Beyoncé’s merch is likely a Fortune 500 company by itself.
I overheard a petite young girl say that she would shank someone for a DC exclusive tour t-shirt.
Once the crowd was let into the actual stadium, it was like a 90s Nickelodeon game show to find the merch tables. Of course within five minutes each one was filled with Beyhive members.
I guess this is how the previous generation felt when they saw Prince or Michael Jackson. There are only a handful of artists that you are culturally and physically being sucked into a world that they’re creating along with hundreds of thousands of other fans.
Speaking of the fans, I really loved all of the creative Cowboy Carter outfits, whether it was the girl in the all red Cowboy outfit, the girl dressed in the same wedding dress as Beyoncé, or the begrudging moms putting on a cowboy hat so they can enjoy the show with their daughter. It was all great.
Also, a very bold shoutout to the girl who had assless chaps with just a thong on a 90 degree day.
If you weren’t participating in the Cowboy Carter dress code you were definitely an outlier. I would say 90% of the crowd was to dress code.
I saw 40 year old women with tears in their eyes and that was before Beyoncé was even on stage.
When the show started it felt like it was an audio tsunami that felt like it could be heard from National Harbor.
Beyoncé’s American flag jumpsuit made her look like a member of the Avengers and was the chef’s kiss on the 4th of July.
Also, her coming out in an American flag fur for the theatrics of it all on a summer July night,I couldn’t imagine how hot she was on stage.
The performance of “Daughter” was worth the price of admission. Her interactive dress that connected with the stage was stunning.
Seeing Blue Ivy dance on stage made me feel old. It felt like just the other day I was watching a Blue Ivy look at the crowd with disgust and becoming a viral meme
How many calories is Beyoncé burning on stage? She has to be closing all of her rings on her Apple Watch, right?
I truly couldn’t comprehend the Navy SEAL precision of the backup dancers while I was watching the performance.
As we exited the show it felt like The Hunger Games trying to get out of Northwest Stadium’s parking lot. Luckily we drove and didn’t Uber.
Everyone who had Ubered was subjected to waiting until 3 a.m. for an uber to connect, walk a mile to get to the train station or try to hitchhike a ride with randoms to get out of the parking lot.
As we left the parking lot, fireworks were being shot off left and right, Beyoncé was blaring through every car speaker and for that sliver of time I felt the most American I’ve ever felt.
