Katy Perry Witness Tour Sheffield Arena - 19th June 2018
Hey!
On Tuesday I went with my parents and bestie Sophie (you can check out her blog here) to Sheffield Arena to see Katy Perry. This was my second time seeing her live, the first was at the Prismatic Tour in 2014. Ever since I walked out of the arena from that tour I had wanted to see her live again, her shows are on another level, you don't just see her sing, you see a whole performance.
Once we arrived in Sheffield we went to Frankie and Benny's and afterwards sat on a bench for a while to kill time in Centertainment across from the arena, some of the speakers outside were playing Katy Perry which was exciting! After a while we walked across to the arena and made our way up to the red doors. The security and organisation outside was a lot better than The Vamps I went to in April. As you got to the top of the stairs they were doing bag searches and metal wands before you were able to join the queue so then once the doors opened it was a lot faster and they only had to scan your ticket.
The doors opened at around 6:35, only 5 minutes late, it was the earliest I'd ever been into the arena I think, we were the first people to get to the merchandise stand which never happens, it was nice not having to join the mass of people trying to get served. I had seen a picture of the merchandise at the American dates on the internet and had seen a Roar T-Shirt I loved but was torn whether to get it or not, I ended up buying it along with a tour date T-Shirt, they were £30 each and I also bought a programme which was £20. Initially I thought it was quite expensive for a programme but it is probably the best programme I've bought from a tour, the pages are great quality and I think it was worth it. Almost all of the pages have different textures and some were super glossy. There was also a page of stickers in it which are a great addition.
We sat down in our seats at around 10 to 7 which was definitely the earliest I'd ever been sat in my seat. We were sat in Block 202, Row G which was a better seat than I had thought when I booked it, although we were in the higher tier we had a really great view as we were close to the front of the arena.
Hailee Stienfeld was the support act, who came on at 7:45. Hailee performed 7 songs and although I only really knew the last 3 songs I enjoyed the whole performance.
The songs Hailee performed were:
Love Myself
Show You Love
Hell Nos and Headphones
Capital Letters
Most Girls
Starving
Let Me Go
The interval was way too long in my opinion. Hailee went off the stage at about 8:15 and Katy Perry didn't come on until about an hour later. I'm not sure if this is normal on every night or if it was a one off but I did feel myself getting a bit fed up waiting. During the interval there was an eye covering the whole of the screens at the front which moved looking from side to side, it looked quite cool although slightly creepy. The last song that played during the interval in the arena before Katy Perry came on was Cha Cha Slide which was great to see the whole arena dancing to and certainly livened the room up.
Katy Perry made her entrance onto the stage through a big mass of smoke on a flying star wearing a shiny gold outfit, as she was lowered to the ground she sung a snippet of Witness. This was the 'In The Space' Section, Katy also sung Roulette on large 3D dice, Dark Horse and Chained to the Rhythm.
The next section was the Act My Age Section, the video introduction showed pictures of Katy during her childhood and growing up along with a clock going backwards which I thought was cool. The first song was Teenage Dream which during the line 'We Drove to Cali' she changed it to 'We Drove to Sheffield' I think she usually does that for wherever she is playing and I love that touch!
The next song was Hot N Cold which before she sung she asked who in the audience was 10 as this song was now 10 years old which I was quite surprised at! It does not feel 10 years that song has been out. Hot N Cold then went straight into Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) with 2 giant flamingoes wandering around on the stage. The last two songs in this section were California Gurls where the dancers were wearing different outfits Katy has worn and I Kissed a Girl where there was giant lips hanging above the stage. During California Gurls, Left Shark came onto the stage to join in at the end of the song, Katy did a head stand and a giant piano was set up at the end of the stage. Left Shark and Katy Perry both played a few tunes on it which was quite amusing.
At the start of the Celestial Body section, during the video introduction they bought a few roses out that were placed around the stage, there was one at the very end of the stage which was a rotating pole although I didn't realise this at the time. They were having a hard time getting this rose to stay up and just as Katy Perry came onto the stage they managed to get it sorted and the audience cheered, I have no idea what would have happened if they didn't get it in! Katy performed Déjà Vu and then Tsunami during which she dances on the rotating pole and there is also a pole dancer. The last two songs in this section were E.T. and Bon Appétit which also included a snipper of "What Have You Done for Me Lately" by Janet Jackson.
The Mind Maze section looked great! several planets came down from the roof and Katy came in singing Wide Awake sat on a planet which moved around above the arena. Katy was then lowered onto the Drop Zone which was a tear shape part of the stage on its own surrounded by fans. Katy chose a fan from the audience to join her on stage but 3 children ended up coming down as they all matched the description Katy had given from what she could see, they each made a wish on a 'flying star' that had dropped down. The best one was one of them wanted to marry Santa Claus which Katy said was the best wish she'd heard on the whole tour. Katy Perry then got back to the main section of the stage and sung Power with giant wings behind her which looked awesome.
The last section was the Video Game Section, the first song was Part of Me, followed by Swish Swish which she started stood on the top of a giant basketball hoop and then was lowered through it, the dancers had giant basketballs around the stage. The final song of this section was Roar which started with a snippet of Hard Knock Life. During Roar there was a giant Lion head over the stage, Katy then disappeared into the stage as the main show ended.
The Encore consisted of two songs, Pendulum and Firework. For Pendulum Katy came onto the stage stood on a large clock which moved above the audience, the final song was Firework and Katy was lowered onto a large inflatable hand, the fingers stretch out and at the end of Firework the hand closes up as Katy disappeared inside.
The whole show was 2 hours long and finished around 11:15, it was a brilliant show and if you get the chance to go before the tour finishes I would definitely recommend it!
See below for a video, I took a clip of every song, there's also a couple from Hailee Steinfeld at the start.
Hope you enjoyed.
Lyndsey xx
