Winning the Taylor Swift Golden Ticket | LIFESTYLE

In 2015 I entered a competition called The Exclusive Taylor Swift Golden Ticket ran by Vogue Australia. The winner would receive-

2 x tickets to Vogue’s private suite at the Taylor Swift ‘The 1989 World Tour’ concert, hosted by Vogue editor-in-chief Edwina McCann.
Flights and one night’s accommodation for the winner and their guest to attend the Taylor Swift ‘The 1989 World Tour’ concert in Sydney on Saturday, November 28, 2015 at ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park.
Champagne and canapés while you enjoy the concert.
The opportunity to party with Vogue VIPs who will also be invited to the Vogue suite.
A Vogue gift bag for you and your guest (with a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ for you!).

So I went out and bought the magazine, got my golden ticket, entered the code on it and answered the question: “tell in 25 words or less which celebs would you have in your girls squad if you were Taylor and why?”.

I’ve been a Swiftie for 9 years. Always loyal, always over the top and she’s always been my favourite- ask anyone who knows me well! I made a pact with my pretty much only other OTT swiftie friend at the time, Liana that if either of us won we would take each other!

My winning ticket!

From the second I entered, I had this really weird gut feeling that we were going to win. In the terms and conditions of the competition, we discovered that winners would be called on Monday the 23rd of November. Along came that date and we spent the whole day watching our phones (inner swiftie optimism). By Tuesday night we still haven’t heard anything and were pretty sad but we quickly got over it and moved on with our life.

On Wednesday morning I woke up with a missed call from a ‘02’ number. Usually, the only people that call me from a ‘02’ number are Telstra (lol) so I didn’t think much of it. I noticed they left a voice mail so I thought I better listen to it. It went a little like this-

‘Hi Chelsea, this is Rachel from Vogue calling. Can you give me a call back soon?’

I froze, quickly redialled and waited for her to pick up. She picked up and I swear my heart stopped. She told me I had won and if I able to fly to Sydney on Saturday. I started crying. I told her that I totally could fly on Saturday and also told her that I thought I had lost the competition because I didn’t get a call on Monday. She just laughed at me and told me she would email me the rest of the details. I immediately called Liana and we celebrated the ridiculously good and equally surprising news.

Saturday morning rolled by so quickly and before we knew it we were on our way to Sydney! From there everything was a whirlwind of excitement.

We won return flights to Sydney from Perth!

Before we boarded!

Had to!

We checked into The Pullman Hotel and admired our beautiful view of Hyde Park while we got ready for the concert. While waiting in the lobby for our uber we bumped into the other Vogue Golden Ticket winners and we got along so well so we decided to uber with them. Which was one of the best decisions because we all become great mates by the time we got to the Concert.

All dolled up!

Thank you Transit Clothing for my dress and heels!

Walking into the Vogue/Samsung Suite was incredible. They have decorated the place with gorgeous golden Balloons, lovely candles and beautiful white flowers. It was like walking into heaven. We all just looked at each other in shock and awe of how wonderful it was. We were quickly met by a lady who checked our names off and gifted us with a Samsung 6S Edge +. The helpful ladies from Samsung gave us a crash course on how to use it and showed us all the awesome features it had.

The Vogue Suite

The Vogue Suite

We were spoiled with champagne and canapés as we mingled, took photos with our new Samsung S6 Edge + phones and excitedly watched Vance Joy perform. The Editor in Chief of Vogue, Edwina McCann spoke to us about how excited she was to have us there. She explained that there were over 10,000 entries for the Vogue Golden Ticket and she was really glad about the response and outcome.

Liana and I in our happy place

Using our prizes!

The lights quickly dimmed, our bands started to flash and before we knew it ‘Welcome to New York’ had started to play and out of the stage appeared Taylor Swift. I was instantly emotional to see the person I have idolised, grown up with and admired for so long. The concert was incredible. 76,000 passionate swifties filled the ANZ Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park and sang every word to every song while dancing like there was no tomorrow.

The other winners

Extremely excited

There is nothing in the world like a Taylor Swift concert. Nothing. The contagious atmosphere was magical and you could tell everyone there was having the time of there lives.

The whole experience was amazing and I want to thank Vogue Australia for having us and making us feel welcome, Samsung for our lovely smartphones, Qantas for flying Liana and I from Perth to Sydney, Transit Clothing for making me look the part as a Vogue VIP and lastly Taylor Swift- for always staying true to her self, loyal to her fans and providing the best role model for myself and many other young adults and young girls!