British Academy of Film Awards

Sunday, Erin and I attended the British Academy of Film Awards (BAFTA's), getting to stand along side the red carpet and be crazy fans! Attending a red carptet was on my bucket list, so the fact that I got to attend one (and a quite a major one I may add) is amazing! Some of my roommates and I had been thinking/talking about going to the BAFTAs throughout the week, but the closer it got they were all kinda thinking it was just going to be a waist of a day. Plus they really did't want to get up early to get in line for wristbands (to let you in the crowd gates). Erin, who originally proposed the idea, still wanted to go and I still really wanted to, so on Sunday morning we set off not knowing how anything would turn out, or if we would even get to see some celebrities and just went with it.

So, on Sunday you were suppose to get in line at 7:00 and then they would start handing out wristbands. We got up, and took a little longer than we thought to get ready, so when we got to .... it was around 7:15. When we arrived, you wrote your name down and got a number written on your hand. Mine was 639, so I was the 639th person in line. Erin and I walked down to get into the super long line that was wrapping around the building we were passing the wristbands out at. Around 8 o'clock the line started moving and we made it to the front by 10:30. 3 hours in that line. When we got to the front they gave us a wristband with another number on it. My number was 802, I don't know how 150 extra people got in front of me since my first number, but at least we got a wristband! They told us we had to be back between 12 and 12:30 to get into another line. We stopped back home got something to eat, I quickly showered and we returned to the location at 12:15. We were suppose to line up according to our wristband number, although it seemed like a lot of people who got wristbands in the morning didn't shown up. It was quite informal, so we were just asking people in line what their wristband number was and squeezing in where need be. There was only about 25 ft in between the 500's and where we were (start of 800's) so obviously not everyone showed up. They told us they weren't going to let us in until 3 o'clock, but actually started letting us in at 1. They went by wristband number, calling pretty much calling out in increments of 20 (Anyone under 200? Anyone under 220?..). The whole gated crowd section was open, so as you got let in you could choose where ever you wanted to stand. When they got close to our numbers they called out anyone under 800 (and Erin had #797) so she went, but was hanging back to wait for me. Needless to say they kept letting in more lower number people, random people coming up with wristbands in the 300's, or having to wait for people to get situation before letting in more. Finally we just convinced the security guy to let me in because I was with Erin and I was going to get in soon anyway. We rushed in and just started walking down the line. We walked down a bit and then got held up in a traffic jam of people, but realized the spot where we stopped was not that bad. We were about the 3rd row of people (the very front crowd, another row, and then us), but if I extended my hand out and leaned a bit it would just reach over the gate. Plus, we were next to one of the huge BAFTA flags and right down the line next to the flag was a tent where interviews happened. At that point it was 1:30 and we had to wait 3 and a half more hours until the celebrities started to arrive at 5. Around 4 o'clock it started to get a little more entertaining with staff, tech guys, E! news people arriving and getting stuff settled.

The first star to arrive was Will Poulter, a new actor who stared in "Were the Millers". I didn't have my notebook for autographs out yet, and I honestly didn't even know who he was at first. I tried to take a few pictures and realized this is going to be harder than I thought. I brought both my DSLR and little point and shoot camera, and started off using my DSLR. Its an amazing camera, but the lighting and was low and it would always focus on the wrong subject making everything else blurry! I got one clear shot, but he's making a funny face. After that it was pretty much a steady stream of stars. Some YouTubers came, Tanya Burr who is my beauty idol with was there and I got her autograph - she was so sweet! Jack and Finn from JacksGap were there as well. Then Steve McQueen and Lupita Nyong'o from "12 years a Slave" showed up. Barkhad Abdi from "Captain Philips" came and Erin was like, yell your from Minnesota! Erin ended up yelling "she's from Minneapolis, Minnesota!" and I repeated it, but he didn't come over to our little section. You know when someone good had arrived because the people ahead of you will start yelling really loud. Suddenly people started yelling and word traveled that Leonardo DiCaprio was here! He was the first real mega-star, so I got my notebook and camera ready because I was determined to get his autograph. Before the red carpet Erin and I were joking around, saying we thought Leo was going to be jerk because we heard he was stuck up; but actually he was really sweet! He went around to almost every section of the fans and signed as much stuff as he could - he wasn't really posing for any pictures, but he seemed like he cared. After that there was a lot of yelling, pushing, leaning forward, standing on your tippie toes trying to get autographs and pictures. I got autographs from Sam Claflin (from "Catching Fire"), Leo DiCaprio, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Tanya Burr. I got to see and take pictures of Tom Hanks, Bradley Cooper, Helen Mirren, Christian Bale, Oprah, Amy Adams, Christoff Waltz, Martin Scorsese and Eddie Redmayne. I even saw Oprah and Hellen Mirren give each other a hug. I couldn't believe 2 of the most influential women were in front of me! Brad and Angelina even showed up, who we didn't know were coming. They were so adorable in matching black tie suits, and kept looking back at each other when they were separated to sign stuff. Brad wasn't even going to come over to our little group of fans, but after relentlessly calling of his name we got him to come over! It started to die down after that, with majority of the celebrities already inside but then we got a little surprise at the end. Prince William showed up! We heard that he was going to make an appearance, but figured he wouldn't walk down the red carpet. Lo and behold when the carpet was all clear he came strolling down and even shook some fan's hands. Overall, all the lines were totally worth it and now I can cross attending a red carpet event off my bucket list! xx