September 20th was an intense day for the Shawn Mendes army with the hashtag #Illuminateexperience trending around social media. Many fans, including myself, were curious about the hashtag. The tweet while including this hashtag, also provided a link. “Pop up shop: Toronto… New York .. LOS ANGELES” More information was provided below with “The first 250 to pre-order my album in store on 9/21 , get to meet me on Monday 9/26”. With less than 24 hrs notice, many fans knew many people would show up to get the chance to meet their idol!
Fans lined up as early as 7 am the next morning to be apart of the first 250 fans. Around 5:30 pm , Staff appeared with clip boards to write down everyone’s name for the meet and greet the following Monday. I was meeting Shawn! After giving my information for the preorder, around 15 of us we’re allowed inside the store for us to preorder the album and buy exclusive Los Angeles Illuminate merchandise. The waiting was the hardest part, but it was so worth it. We also ended up going to see the Spotify Shawn Sign!
After a fun day of making new friends and listening to his music, we still had to wait till Monday to meet Shawn . The meet and greet started at 6 pm within the same location . A group of friends that I met at the pop up shop on the 21st rode up together for the event and we were all nervous! After checking in for our wristbands, we were walked into the pop up with only a security guard and a curtain between Shawn and I .
I then walked through the curtains and hugged Shawn right away. He asked how I was and I loudly said, “I Am So Good” haha . He then said, “Bye Honey” and that was it. After walking out of the meet and greet, the staff cut off our red Shawn wristbands , handed us a slip of paper with details of how to receive the photo, and the album.
The day may have been over, but it was the best. We quickly put in the CD after getting into our car and we jammed along to every song multiple times on the way home. Thank you to Shawn and staff for planning out an amazing day for everyone . See you at the Illuminate World Tour !
