What you need to know for One Direction’s Sept. 19 concert at Sun Bowl Stadium

When a concert as big as One Direction is coming to town it’s never too early to prepare for it.

Forty-four thousand tickets have already been issued for the Sept. 19 concert at UTEP’s Sun Bowl Stadium.

UTEP has released its fan guide for the concert and it includes information about where attendees are advised to enter the Sun Bowl Stadium and an option for parents to hang out instead of driving home and back to the show to pick up their kids.

“It is skewing very young,” Jorge Vazquez, director of UTEP’s Office of Special Events, said of those attending One Direction shows on this tour. “For most of them, this is the first concert they’ll ever see. To put it in perspective, they are the Beatles of this generation.”

Don’t scoff at the Beatles comparison because, yes, they started as a “boy band,” too before they got into their experimental phase that led to legendary status.

The Jackson 5, New Kids on the Block, N’Sync, Jonas Brothers, and One Direction (1D) followed in their boy band footsteps.

What to Expect from the Show

Even though a majority of fans – 95 percent by some accounts – camped out for 1D’s European shows, fans won’t even be able to line up for the El Paso show until 4 p.m.

That’s because of safety concerns, weather, and it’s a school day.

Gates will open for 1D’s El Paso concert at 5 p.m. and fans are encouraged to enter through the North Side gates. Fans with disabilities should park in the parking lot designated by the map attached to this story because it will make it easier to get to your seat.

The concert starts promptly at 7 p.m. when opener 5 Seconds of Summer takes the stage.

“This is not your typical concert where people trickle in during the opening act,” Vazquez said. “5 Seconds of Summer is almost as big as One Direction is and fans will be screaming for them.”

How loud will it get? Vazquez said it was 2 decibels below a jet engine at the 1D concert he and some of his staffers attended in Nashville Aug. 19.

With how loud it will be it’ll be impossible for Liam or Niall to hear that you love him.

That’s why fans have been taking homemade signs to the concerts.

“Signs are the only way fans can communicate with the band, in their minds,” Vazquez said.

Signs will be allowed but they can’t be larger than 22 inches by 28 inches and they can’t be on sticks or poles and cannot contain inappropriate content.

The signs also have to already have the writing or drawings on them. They can’t be blank because Sun Bowl staff doesn’t want to take any chances with what creative young minds might write on them in the heat of the moment.

To say the show’s production is huge would be a massive understatement.

It takes 34 semi-trucks to carry the stages and other production items from city to city.

The concert stage is massive with two big screens on both sides of the stage.

There also will a runway that leads from the main stage to the b-stage.

“The b-stage elevates 20 feet in the air and it becomes an LED box with the band singing on top of it,” Vazquez said.

He says the Sun Bowl is a stadium where fans will be able to see the band members’ faces from all the seats.

Keep Your Phones Going and Going and Going

Because this younger demographic that attends 1D shows are all about texting and posting pictures to social media, UTEP’s Special Events office is working to bolster the cell phone infrastructure at the stadium and will have charging stations on site.

If you don’t want to drain your phone battery taking dozens of pictures, you can always take a non-professional camera (no detachable lenses) but it has to fit in the palm of your hand.

Helping Parents Out

“In Nashville, there were tons of parents waiting outside, chilling or smoking, waiting for their kids,” Vazquez said.

While Vazquez is discouraging parents from just dropping off their kids for the concert and picking them up afterwards, he realizes some parents will do it.

The parents don’t want to drop them off, go home to Ciudad Juarez or East El Paso and drive back to pick them up, Vazquez said.

One option, other than hanging out in the car in the parking lot, is for parents to go to the Parent Lounge that will be set up at Memorial Gym and opens at 4 p.m.

There won’t be a live feed of the concert at the Parent Lounge but there will be chairs, concessions, merchandise, restrooms and entertainment.

Vazquez said they haven’t decided what entertainment will be in the Parent Lounge but it could include a movie or maybe pool tables.

There won’t be alcohol at the Parent Lounge, though.

Take Care of Ticket Issues Before Concert Day

If you have tickets waiting for you at Will Call, pick them up as soon as possible and not wait until Sept. 19 or even the week of the show, Vazquez advised.

Tickets can be damaged by heat, sunlight, and even water – and those are just the regular, hard tickets.

Vazquez said Ticketmaster tickets bought at Walmart stores are printed on receipt paper and especially susceptible to being damaged.

Vazquez said if you have a damaged ticket or lost it to call the University Ticket Center (915-747-5234) as soon as possible and not wait until day of show to take care of it.

If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, what are you waiting for? Buy them at the University Ticket Center, other Ticketmaster locations, or online at http://bit.ly/Wkcu7V

Ticket prices range from $19.50 to $99.50, not including service charges.

Safety Regulations

Patrons with tickets on the floor cannot stand on the chairs and cannot stand in or block the aisle.

Strobe lights and lasers will be used during the concert, so those that might have an illness or disease affected by that should take that into account if attending.

Attendees should also drink plenty of water and eat before arriving to the stadium because the temperature could still be hot and possibly humid, as well.

Parents who want to make sure they can be contacted if something happens to their child can have a free bracelet put on their child with both of their names and the parent’s phone number in case they need to be contacted.

The information on the bracelet is put on the inside of the bracelet so it can be as private as possible.

Where to Park/Getting to the Show

Parking will be free at UTEP for the concert except for the Sun Metro Transit Terminal at Mesa and Glory Road.

It will cost $10 to park in that particular parking garage.

Sun Metro is not offering a special park-and-ride program as it did for El Paso Chihuahuas games.

For the complete fan guide for the show, click on the slideshow to the left of this article under related content.