'I moved to LA to for a month see Harry Styles': Inside the gig-tripping travel trend

'Gig-tripping' is a new travel trend where music fans decide to attend a show of their favourite artist at a destination they've been wanting to visit.

In 2024, we'll perhaps see even more of this with international Swifties visiting the UK as Taylor Swift's Era Tour takes place this June as well as fans travelling to Germany after Adele announced she will play a series of shows in Munich this August.

With this trend in mind, online travel booking platform, Omio, caught up with 26-year-old Xoee Pearl, from New York, who has followed pop star Harry Styles on the ‘Love on Tour’ through a number of locations around the world from Los Angeles, New York, to Barcelona, London and more.

Xoee, who said that combining her passions for music and travel is her “happy place”, spoke exclusively with Omio about her gig-tripping adventures.

When the ‘Golden’ singer announced ‘Love on Tour’ in 2022, which included a 15-show LA residency, and so Xoee got stuck into planning her trip and decided to move to the city for a month with her friend.

“There was something really special about moving out to LA for a month and embracing that life all because of Harry’s shows. Finding a new favourite coffee shop and being able to play pretend as a local was also a plus," she said.

Booking accommodation in advance, and inviting more friends to join were key ways to make the trip "more affordable."

“Since we booked an Airbnb very far in advance, that gave us many options to choose from at a fair price. Once the place was booked, it was a lot easier to open up the invitation to more friends to split the cost, making it more affordable, and way more of a fun month-long sleepover."

Xoee’s LA AirBnB she staying in for a monthTikTok/@xoeepearl

Staying at an Airbnb as opposed to a hotel also meant she didn’t have to move rooms constantly and could really settle into Laurel Canyon, in the Hollywood hills, as opposed to the Forum, where the Harry Styles shows were throughout that month.

Xoee added: “By staying in this neighbourhood I got to explore a new part of LA, an experience that I would not have done if not for the LA residencies."

Given her commitment to staying in a LA for month specifically for Styles's show, Xoee described the Love On Tour concert atmosphere as “so special and sacred and addictive." and compared the final show of the pop star's residency to the "end of summer camp."

While the LA shows were done and dusted, Xoee was able to travel across the country to catch Styles in New York who had a 15-show residency there too.

At this time, Xoee was able to stay in her Brooklyn apartment with the venue only a subway ride away.

The gig-tripping then went international as Xoee also made it a “priority” to continue on with Harry and ‘Love on Tour’, booking flights to Barcelona, where as fortune would have it she had a wedding around the same time.

“I had a family wedding in Barcelona two days after Harry Styles was performing in the same city, which was incredibly lucky!”

Timing also worked out for Xoee who was able to catch Styles perform at Wembley too, thanks to a flight layover.

She recalled: “I had the opportunity to work in Switzerland in 2021 and my flight back to the US had a layover through London, a week before Harry Styles was playing Wembley for the first time!”

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