'Been waiting 46 years': Bruce Springsteen fans on fire for the Boss's 1st Winnipeg show
Fans check in 13 hours before showtime to ensure place up front in the pit
They weren't exactly dancing in the dark — more like shuffling in pre-dawn chill to stay warm — but Bruce Springsteen fans in Winnipeg are most certainly in their glory days as the Boss is finally here.
"I've been waiting 46 years for this day," said Winnipegger Stu Reid. "It's kind of euphoric. It's finally happening. I'd given up on this years ago."
He was among more than 50 people who started lining up outside the Canada Life Centre around 6 a.m. Wednesday, more than 13 hours before the long-awaited concert is set to start at 7:30 p.m.
"Bruce means the most to them. They're the most passionate, absolutely committed fans, and they get to be right up the front at the stage," said super fan Graham Atkinson, who is from Australia and helping to run a long-standing tradition among Springsteen devotees known as rollcall.
Those with general admission floor tickets (rather than assigned seats) have a tradition known as the lottery and rollcall.
The lottery determines who will be admitted to the pit area at the front of the stage, then rollcalls determine entry order.
The fan-run system is designed to avoid a mad rush into the pit.
Those who won a pit spot in the lottery are given a number, and rollcalls are carried out every few hours to check that everyone is still in the queue. In Winnipeg, the fans have been checking in a few times a day since Sunday, Atkinson said.
People don't need to stay in line for the entire day but must be there for rollcall or risk losing their place.
At 7 a.m. Wednesday, the rollcallers went inside Canada Life Centre to finally get their wristbands for the show, ending the need to line up anymore before doors open for the concert in the evening.
"This whole process goes for days, and you do get tired," Atkinson said, but when the fans get led to the basement of the arena and out onto the floor, "You know it's real, you know you're just about to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
"When the lights come down, adrenaline [kicks in]. It's three hours of the happiest that you will ever be in your life, at a Bruce Springsteen show."
This is the first time in Springsteen's 52 years of performing that he will play in Manitoba. Now 75, the rock icon and his band is on their first tour in six years.
"I think Winnipeg's going to be a special show," said Atkinson, 58, who has spent much of his life seeing Springsteen in concert and describes his songs as painting pictures in your head.
"He would know that history [of fans trying to get him to come to the city], and I think he'll give something unique to Winnipeg."
The Winnipeg show was originally scheduled for Nov. 10, 2023, but was postponed as Springsteen was being treated for symptoms related to peptic ulcer disease.
"This will be my 45th [Springsteen] show, but you know, you say that to a Winnipegger, and it's like, 'Oh, I can't believe it,'" said Reid.
"You say it to these people here, who've been travelling around and have gone all over the world to see him, it's like that's small potatoes to them."
His wife, Kathy, is set for her 37th Springsteen show.
"We never thought that this would happen, that we would be here [to see him]," she said. "This is kind of the culmination of everything."
Among those in line on Wednesday were people from Brazil, Scotland, Norway, Poland, as well as throughout the United States (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Chicago, Texas, Boston, New Jersey, Oregon, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Los Angeles) and Canadians from Ontario and Quebec, Atkinson said.
That's the thing with rollcall line, he said.
"It's a social event, so we meet new new fans and we meet fans that we have known for years, because it's the same fans for years who keep coming with these things, so you reunite," he said.
"We're all cut from the same cloth so we can all talk Bruce Springsteen endlessly. And we're not crazy, we can all relate."
The Reids actually met and got married because of Springsteen, they said.
Kathy, who is originally from North Carolina and still carries the accent around Winnipeg, said Stu created a fanzine about Springsteen in 1980. She got a copy the next year and became pen pals with him.
Four years later, they were married.
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Bruce," Kathy said.
"It's his fault," Stu piped in.
WATCH | Springsteen fans line up for wristbands at end of rollcall:
Springsteen hasn't played in Brazil in the lifetime of São Paulo resident Virgilio Amaral, who instead travels the world to see the Boss. The most recent show Amaral took in was in Montreal on Halloween night.
"We have never been in Canada before. It's a beautiful country," said Amaral, as he checked in for rollcall.
"It's always an opportunity to meet new people, meet new places. We love Springsteen, and it always is an excuse to do all those things."
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With files from Meaghan Ketcheson