5 Seconds of Fortune

Andrea Neal

Fans rushed down the terminal as the new and upcoming band, 5 Seconds of Summer, arrived at the DFW airport. The band took a flight from their hometown of Sydney, Australia to perform at the House of Blues in Dallas. Juniors Sofie Alatorre, Bailey Weishaar, Brittany Livingston, Candelaria “Candy” Barzola, and Sadie Rinker were on top of  this\as soon as they heard of the band’s pending arrival.

“Candy was the main person that introduced all of us to 5 Seconds of Summer’s music,” Sofie said. “I started listening to it and it was the punk style of music that I loved and I was instantly hooked.”

The five girls planned to go to the airport in hopes of meeting the band. On the way there, however, they hit a few bumps in the road.

“We got a flat tire as we were almost to the airport. We had to wait for triple A to come and get it fixed and it was really stressful,” Brittany said. “But, as soon as the car was fixed, we went to the airport just in case the band hadn’t arrived yet.”

Just as they had parked their car, the band arrived. They walked inside to get a better look at the band and hopefully meet them.

“It was like a mad-house in the airport,” Sofie said. “Fans were rushing and trying to take pictures with them. We finally got a picture and were able to meet them and talk to them. But then, this security guard came up and talked to us asking if we had tickets to the show at House of Blues that night. We explained that we didn’t and he said he would hook us up.”

Things took a turn for the strange, however, when the security guard started sending inappropriate texts to the girls.

“We had gotten to the venue and started getting these texts from the guy saying things like, ‘I wouldn’t have gotten you the tickets if you guys weren’t so hot,’ and stuff like that, so we went to the head director of House of Blues and told them about what was happening. We had to write statements, but House of Blues was so great throughout all of it,” Sofie said.

The house of blues provided the girls with a free buffet of food, merchandise such as t-shirts, hats, and bags, a VIP box to watch the show, and VIP passes.

“It turned out that the VIP passes they gave us were actually passes to the meet and greet that was happening with the band,” Sofie said.

Bailey explained that the meet and greet was one of the perks they received from the creepy text incident.

“When we walked in, all of the other girls that already had stuff for the meet and greet were surprised, and we were told to walk in and talk to the band members and take pictures with them,” Bailey said. “5SOS recognized us and they were saying ‘oh my gosh haven’t we seen y’all already today’ and it was one of those ‘is this really happening’ moments.”

The girls were awestruck that their day had ended on a good note. They were able to meet a band, and although the inappropriate texts put a damper on the day in a way, everything they had hoped for was accomplished along with a few perks.

“The experience was like a roller coaster,” Candy said. “Everything happened so fast and crazy but I wouldn’t change it. It was a great day.