1 Year On From The Manchester Attack

The tweet flashed up on my phone screen. Instantly I felt sick to my stomach.

 

“Suspected explosion at Ariana Grande concert.”

 

Twitter came alive with hundreds of questions being asked, prayers ‘hoping nothing bad has happened’ and the panicked tweets for friends along with the beginnings of footage coming through.

We all hoped for the best but knew, that in the state our world is currently is in, our worst fears weren’t far-fetched.

Hopeful ideas of the noise (which we all knew because of ‘that’ video) being just an accidental mic drop or speaker playing up, gave way to the truth no one wanted to hear. Our worst case scenario confirmed, this was really happening.

In the UK, where we felt so secure and relatively safe from the horrendous attacks taking place in Europe over the past few years, we were now under attack.

Shaken by a suicide bomb, a terrorist attack in Manchester, the entire country went into shock.

This was really happening. Here. In the UK. In Manchester. In a city like my own, with a proud, powerful and world renown music scene, a terrorist attack was now left in pieces.

I go to gigs enough to know how scared people can be going to gigs. The attack at the Bataclan in Paris, 2015, left a lasting impression on many people. A new fear rose to the surface - how safe is it going to gigs?

Working in a venue similar size to the Manchester arena, I’m well aware of people’s safety fears, amongst their other fears such as heights and overcrowding. The size of venues is intimidating to many people, but it’s something you do get used to. You become comfortable where you are and that big imposing crowd, especially at gigs like this, become a sea of excited people like you.

And as parents and friends waited for loved ones, that bubble of security and feeling safe, created through the entire night was popped, ripped open by a bomb.

What struck many people was the age of those affected. The audience was mainly made up of young people. Young people who were just getting their proper taste of freedom. Young people going to gigs to the first time to see a musician they loved, caught up in a horrendous attack and left scarred for life.

Their friends and families would have known their excitement. With such a highly anticipated tour, social media was undoubtedly going to be flooded with videos when the gig ended. Full of people screaming when Grande appeared on stage, dancing along to their favourite tracks and singing their hearts out.

When the gig ended, friends and families waiting to pick people up weren’t greeted by excited crowds. They were greeted by people crying, ambulances and news teams. Videos from the gig did flood social media, then they flooded the news. The screaming heard in them was in fear, not excitement. Instead of people dancing it was people running. People pushing away seats, climbing over each other, vaulting over safety barriers and fences, desperate to escape. Within minutes, the world knew something big just happened in Manchester.

This was really happening.

The next day the UK was mourning. With hundreds injured and 22 loved ones lost in the attack, a rebellious solidarity came over the country.

Music runs deep in the countries history. It’s a heritage that is rich, that we are proud of and we would not let slip away with this attack.

Events like this do make us want to lock ourselves away at home but the reality is, we can’t survive living in fear.

We can’t refuse to go to gigs because of the fear ‘what if it happens again?’ We can’t let the victims, every single person in that arena and their friends and families, suffer in vain. We need to do the exact opposite of what our attackers want. We need to not live in fear but stand up for what they attacked, the music we love. We can’t let anyone silence us or make us too afraid to go to gigs and enjoy what we love.

The day after the attack, we set our threat level to severe and went out. We held candlelit vigils in the heart of cities nationally, we lay flowers in city centres, we created and adorned memorials, we held tribute concerts and had them televised, showing the world this event will not silence us.

There was a prevailing sense of we will not be silenced and we will never change who we are.

Instead of creating fear, this attack brought the country together for a few days of mourning and somberly.

Instead of creating, this attack showed good will always prevail over evil.

We are not scared. We are music lovers who went to gigs the very next day, who in between guitar changes spoke about the loss of innocent lives and toasted to their peace. We forever will play out records loudly, shamelessly dance at gigs and celebrate the music, and moments, we love.

We will do what we need to do to stop something like this happening again but we will not live in fear.

We were given a new found strength. As a country, we wore bumblebee shirts, lay flowers, played music a little too loudly and bounced back.

They choose the wrong cities music scene and the wrong country to attack.

We are (and always will be) Manchester proud.

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There is a one minute silence being held at 2.30pm (UK GMT) to remember the victims of the Manchester Arena attack.