December was a crazy month. Taking care of my grandma, who has dementia and Parkinson’s, has not been easy, but recently it had become a lot more difficult. Balancing that alongside all of life’s other responsibilities, of which there are many, was taking a toll.
So when I heard that the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas was throwing a massive grand opening event with Coldplay, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and more performing, it sounded like a much-needed vacation, as long as I could make the schedule work with everything back home.
The plan hit an immediate snag when I realized this was a star-studded, invite-only event for roughly 1,500 people. While looking into options, I noticed the hotel was selling about ten special packages that included two tickets for the entire weekend’s festivities. It was by far the most expensive Coldplay experience to date, but it felt like an early Christmas present and a much-needed break from reality.
Believe it or not, the next problem was that I could not find anyone to take my second ticket! I ended up inviting a close friend who probably could not name a single Coldplay song.
Then, right around Christmas, another close friend, let’s call him C, told me he had a surprise. His entire family had scored invites through the hotel, and he had an extra ticket he was gifting to me. Suddenly, I had an extra, extra ticket.
The trip quickly turned into an unexpected reunion of some of my oldest friends. One of them, who we will call D, is a total wild card, so I had to fly out to San Francisco a few days early just to make sure he actually got on the plane. It is not that he is ungrateful; he just has his own interesting quirks. While in the Bay Area, we even made a random drive out to the GoPro HQ in Half Moon Bay to naively ask if we could buy their latest unreleased camera. We had no idea what we were thinking, and obviously, it did not work out.
Personal Concierges and Private Shows
From the moment we landed in Vegas, I knew the weekend was going to be special. At check-in, I was assigned a personal concierge to serve as my point man for the entire stay. That was when I realized there was way more going on than I had originally thought.
The package included some insane experiences. Ben Folds was set to perform a private set while we ate dinner, and Florence and the Machine were doing an intimate private show for package holders as well.
On top of that, because almost everyone else in attendance was a famous invited guest, they were not showing up until the main event, meaning we had effortless access to everything around the resort.
After getting settled and having all five of us arrive, we went down to get lunch in the hotel and immediately ran into Will. Shortly after, our friend Tucker ran into Chris, and I think Chris humored him for a bit by listening to him explain some complicated issue with horse betting.
Setting the Line
The main event was scheduled for New Year’s Eve. Out of the five of us, I was the only one obsessing over getting down to the venue early enough to secure a spot at the barricade. I kept running down to check where I thought the line would form.
C, coming from that world, kept telling me there was no way the type of high-profile crowd coming that night would stand in a traditional line. In the meantime, we were hanging out listening to Tom Cruise stories from another friend in our group. Tom happens to be a family friend of his, and hopefully one day I will get to meet the man himself. I was listening, but I was so anxious the entire time, I think there is even a video floating around of me pacing during this conversation, that I decided I just had to go down and start the line myself.
I went down to the ballroom area around 7:00 PM. The single security guard standing outside asked why I was trying to enter so early, pointing out that the step-and-repeat carpet for celebrities was in a completely different area. I told him I did not care about the red carpet at all; I just wanted to go inside first. He told me to come back later since nothing was set up yet, but promised that with how often I was checking, he would make sure I was the very first person through the doors.
On the elevator ride back up to my room, I looked up from my phone to check into the elevator to figure out where to walk in and stand. Inside there were two actresses. I looked at both of them, and it clicked who they were, leaving them looking like they were expecting me to say something to them. But then I just looked right back down at my phone and kept typing to the group. The only thing occupying my brain was being first into that ballroom, so I completely ignored everything around me.
Front Row for New Year’s Eve
When the time finally came, we went down, completely skipped the red carpet cameras, and walked straight into the ballroom.
For a long stretch of time, no one else came in. We made friends with another couple who had also purchased the package, but C was completely right: the rest of the crowd was not interested in waiting, or they were hanging out at the open bars. No one was competing for the front barricade, which made for an amazingly relaxed experience.
The show itself was out of this world. The band was loose, having an incredible time, and the night was packed with unannounced surprises.
At one point, I looked toward the back of the stage and noticed John Mayer sitting in and playing guitar with Jay-Z’s backing band without anyone even making an announcement about it. During his set, Kanye gave me a few fist bumps from the stage while performing.
The funniest moment came right at the end of the night. I had been singing every single word to every song across all the performers’ sets. Jay-Z walked up to the edge of the stage, looked down at me, and said, “I’ve seen you, in the purple sweater, singing all night.” He poured a glass of champagne and tried to hand it over to me.
Because I do not drink, I politely declined.
He looked at me in absolute shock and asked if I was seriously turning it down. I thanked him and told him he should hand it to the group right next to me who had also been singing along all night. He gave me a knowing nod and passed it along.
The next morning at breakfast, I ran into those exact people. Both of us had completely lost our voices, and we spent the whole meal talking about how unbelievable the entire night had been. We even got to do the midnight countdown right there with the band on stage.
The weekend was packed with so many additional side quests that I cannot even list them all here, but it was an utterly unforgettable trip. I think this show will stand out forever.
