Growing up, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was a morning routine before I went to school and listening to Will Smith’s greatest hits on my old CD player was commonplace in my household, countless movies and hits later Will Smith is Hollywood royalty regardless of recent controversies but is this VIP package for his UK tour worth the price, I took the plunge and found out for myself!
As a fan the opportunity to meet someone like Will Smith is a rare commodity as usually fans are restricted to big crowds at premiere’s vying for a few seconds of the stars attention and as an introvert (mostly) I find this horrendous. I want brief moments of one-to-one time with those I wish to meet and speak to and I hate that fan mentality of I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU.
I’ll never understand that for a second, they’re humans just like everyone else and they deserve at least to be spoken to like a human being as opposed to some instant gratification for your Instagram feed if you happen to snap a photo with them. Share those memories, but just be a little respectful eh?
For me, meeting someone like Will Smith is an honour but a memory but if I was to ever meet someone I’d make it count and make it count I did.
The recent UK Tour consisted of three VIP packages which certainly caused a stir online due to their rather hefty price tag so let me break down the packages and let you know what I think about each one.
FIRST ENTRY MERCH PACKAGE (£228 Prices Vary)
One (1) Event Ticket
” One (1) Exclusive Will Smith Merchandise Pack
” One (1) Commemorative VIP Laminate
” Venue First Entry (Where Applicable)
” On Site VIP Host
PLEASE NOTE: THIS VIP PACKAGE DOES NOT INCLUDE A MEET & GREET. THERE IS NO ARTIST INVOLVEMENT WITH THIS PACKAGE.
Right so firstly I’m not quite sure why anyone would get this package with the event tickets already being quite affordable you’re essentially paying full price for merchandise and first entry which consisted of a tote bag, VIP laminate and a cap. Hardly worth the jump in price and without a meet-and-greet included I don’t think this one was worth the money whatsoever. Here’s your overpriced and inflated merchandise, thank you, bye.
GROUP PHOTO AND SOUNDCHECK (£389 Prices Vary)
One (1) Event Ticket
” Group Photo Opportunity with Will Smith
” Access to Pre Show Soundcheck
” Will Smith Curated Merchandise Pack
” One (1) Commemorative VIP laminate
” Venue First Entry (Where Applicable)
” One Site VIP Host
This is the package I got because if you compare it to the most expensive package the only difference is having your photo alone with Will and a signed laminate and signed framed poster. Now Will’s autograph will always command a high value so if you ever wish to part with it you’ll certainly get a good £50-£100+ (more for the framed poster) but the huge £800+ jump between packages was NOT worth it for me whatsoever but it really is personal preference.
This package was certainly the best priced in my opinion, you get to meet Will, you get the soundcheck experience exactly the same as the ultimate package and the soundcheck really was like a mini concert in its own right, but more on that later.
ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE (£1185 Prices Vary)
One (1) Event Ticket
” Photo Opportunity and Meet & Greet with Will Smith
” Access to Pre Show Soundcheck
” Signed & Framed Vintage Style Will Smith Poster
” Will Smith Curated Merchandise Pack
” One (1) Commemorative VIP laminate, signed by Will Smith
” Venue First Entry (Where Applicable)
” One Site VIP Host
This was certainly the package that if I’d have paid it I’d be kicking myself at not buying the mid tier package because you’ll have a framed poster to show for it and that’s about it, that’s quite the jump in price and I think £500-£600 would have made sense for this package but I certainly wouldn’t have been happy had I paid that much for the experience only for those who paid a lot less got the exact same experience bar an on-stage individual photo with Will.
But once again these packages are completely down to the fans who want to pay for them and whilst I cannot tell people what they should and should not buy I can only approach it from a value for money angle and the mid-tier package was certainly the winner for me on this occasion.
VIP Soundcheck Experience
After we entered the venue 5 hours before start time, we all gathered inside the rather industrial looking O2 Victoria Warehouse. I have never been in this venue before and it certainly has a rustic underground charm to it that’s for sure.
We headed towards the stage and Will was taking photos with the guys who had purchased the top tier package who after that very photo were now getting the same benefits as we were.
Will came down off stage and down to us where he high-fived every single person and made everyone feel welcome.
With this being a popular package the group was divided into two so that 30+ people weren’t all crowding into one photo.
Group one had their photo and I hung back knowing the second that group was done I was first in line for this second photo. Lo and behold Will came over, popped his arm around me and gathered the rest of the group together for our photo. This was a nice moment, everyone was happy and smiling and Will seemed genuinely happy to be there and having been told he only arrived 20 minutes prior to this meet-and-greet he was in good spirits which is always nice to see.
As the photographer was fiddling with his camera settings we were all in this huddle yet no one was speaking, everyone was just perfecting their smiles for the camera so I turned to will and just asked him the first thing that came to mind:
Me: With all of your successes, what motivates you to keep going to reach that next goal and to achieve that next milestone?
Knowing full well this is a question I’m sure he’s been asked a million times, I just asked him as a human being, not a crazed fan. Cool and calm as you like hoping to take whatever words came out of his mouth as a motivation for me and my own work moving forward in this crazy world of self employment.
He replied:
Will: I do it for this, to see people smiling. If I can get those smiling around me it’s all worth it, I love that, I live for that.
I thought that was a nice answer to keep everyone happy but if I had more time I would have dived into that as whilst I know for a fact Will has this need to please people I would have loved to have dived more into what motivated him to keep going when some of the smiles disappeared albeit briefly after his infamous Oscars slap.
What I did take from that brief chat was that he spoke to me, undivided attention for minutes discussing more about what he said above and I really appreciated that, he took the time to really address it and we spoke man to man whilst everyone else in the group was soaking up every last word.
I really appreciated that and just as he finished talking he was escorted to stage and soundcheck began.
Singing a whole variety of hits, fine tuning the mic, breakdancers and classics such as Miami, Getting Jiggy With It, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song and Boom Boom Shake the Room bellowed to a short VIP crowd this soundcheck turned into a mini-concert in its own right.
Now all of a sudden the price paid for that mid-tier seemed very good value for money. I’ve been to many soundchecks over the years where a band or artist plays one song or at the most two and then disappears back to their trailer, not this time, we got at least a 20-30 minute mash-up of routines and songs to the point where I felt as though I didn’t need to go to the gig, this moment mattered more and it was less stuffy, crowded and uncomfortable as most gigs usually are.
This really felt special and certainly lived up to what the package was listed as but once again, those £1000+ ticket holders must have been kicking themselves just a little bit as I definitely feel as though that jump in price wasn’t justified whatsoever but those prices are usually determined by the agents / VIP companies and never the artist so that’s solely on them.
For me, the Will Smith VIP package was worth it but I was lucky enough to choose the right one and on this occasion the night went about as smoothly as it could possibly get. The security and VIP hosts were well organised with the three separate tier groups and there was minimal waiting and fuss when we entered the venue, it went like clockwork with no issues and I have no doubt that 237Global are a big part of that smooth transaction.
I want to thank all of those involved in that process for making a VIP experience actually feel VIP rather than some that feel about as shallow and cash grab as they can possibly get.
If there were ANY negatives of the experience I’d say that whoever is uploading the group photos is a little behind as on the email it says photos will be uploaded to a server within 7 days of an event but there’s events from over two weeks ago that still to this date haven’t had their photos uploaded yet so a little bit more speed on those uploads I think would be appreciated for fans to get their memories up ASAP as I know that means a lot to people.
