Tickets- they’re the things any good music fan will save up for, particularly if it’s for a band she loves.

It’s always struck me how frenzied an email or a notice on a band’s website announcing a new tour can make a fan. For example, back in high school, I would wait religiously for emails announcing tours. As soon as I knew when the tickets were on sale, I marked that date off on the calendar, figured out how many hours of babysitting it would take to afford those tickets, and then wait with a twisted stomach until the tickets went on sale.

It made me more nervous than a test.

Then you had to throw in the curve balls- pre-sales, VIP passes, signing tickets, early entry passes- it was enough to make me want to puke.

But that’s how they make money, right? By building such a frenzy around tickets and ticket sales and who is going to get to go to that show- it’s insane.

Recently, I found out that a certain boyband was coming around- One Direction- for a second run of a world stadium tour. My sister, who’s fifteen, is a huge fan and “oh my goooooood, gurl, I neeeeeeed those tickets!!!!!!!!!!” (Yes, that was an actual text message I received). So, like the good sister I am, I looked up pre-sale times, found pre-sale codes, and voila, had her tickets. Thank God I did it when I did because half the stadium was gone already and it was only the first day of the pre-sale.

Fans have got to be bending over backwards to be getting these tickets and the frenzy it creates is umimaginable. It’s amazing the lengths people will go to get tickets. I’ve seen tickets that started at $30 go for $400. I’ve seen kids cry when they find out their StubHub tickets are fake. It’s all a bit sad.

And for what? A show?

But, here’s the thing- those shows are often pretty awesome. For a lot of people, particularly the kids who go to the giant, MetLife Stadium worthy shows, they get that one show a year. ONE. SHOW. I wouldn’t know how to live if I only wanted to go to that one show and the tickets were sold out.

I can understand the crying then.

In fact, I can understand the crying at any time if you don’t get into that show. (Oh, My Chem, I can still remember not getting those MSG tickets. The pain.)To see your idols on a stage in front of you and to be in that crowd with people who enjoy the same music- it’s incomparable.

So, is the frenzy worth it? Maybe not the stomach aches and the nail biting as you wait for Ticketmaster’s website to register that, yes, it’s 11 AM and those tickets should be available NOW, thank you very much. But the excitement around planning for those tickets? The long phone calls with your friends and the figuring out how to get to the show or who’s going to buy the tickets? Yeah, that’s worth it because, in the end, you’re getting to see your favorite act with your favorite people.