WARNING: CONTAIN SPOILERS ABOUT GHOST’S SKELETOUR

“The Anointed” is the second highest tier of VIP experiences offered at this tour’s Ghost concerts, and includes: early admission, early access to a merch stand, a free lanyard­ + Yeti™ water bottle, the Ghost museum and early entry into the pit

THE EXPERIENCE

Early admission started at 4:30, beginning with “The Apostles”, then it was The Anointed’s (my) turn. Right after entering, I waited in line to get my surprise gift, a Skeletá water bottle (purple) and a lanyard with a laminated grucifix attached, my The Anointed VIP wristband with the number 65 because I was the 65th person to check in, and the Yondr pouch for my phone.

Then, I went to the small Ghost-memorabilia ‘museum’. There stood the Papas’ and Sister Imperator’s bodies in glass coffins, a shelf with each albums’ record and some old tickets/merch in drawers, old outfits of the Nameless Ghouls and Papa, a confessional booth for taking pictures in, a small dressing table seemingly belonging to a Papa, and a collection of pictures of the band. It was quite bright because there were a lot of windows in the long, white hallway, and it seemed very unfeeling in comparison to other locations, which had black drapes, candelabras and similar things to enhance the mood.

Right after, I arrived at the end of the corridor to see the other VIPs, and there were two queues; one for The Apostles, who were immediately lined up by their numbers, and The Anointed, who stood chaotically all around. A local employee attempted to get us to sort ourselves by the numbers on our VIP bracelets, but nobody paid any attention to her, because just before we’d been told that we could go to the merch stand early if we were willing to lock our phones in the pouches long before we actually needed to for the concert. I quickly locked mine into the (way too big) pouch and went to the merch stand. There was a large selection of shirts and sweaters, including the iconic batwing hoodie, plus Skeletá on vinyl and Skeletá shorts, but alas, this isn’t a merch review.

I went back into the VIP waiting area, and shortly thereafter, one of Ghost’s managers showed up with a megaphone and managed to get us all into the right order of our numbered wristbands. Then, it was time to go into the concert hall. We showed the security that our phones were, truly, locked into the Yondr pouches, but one was skeptical and insisted he open mine again and close it himself, just to make sure I hadn’t tampered with it somehow. After that small hiccup, I went into the pit, and, like most other Anointeds, managed to stand at the barricades. It was quite annoying that we had to wait roughly 3 hours for the concert to start, but it was definitely worth it for the view I got.

CONCLUSION

Looking back, it was worth the 340€ I paid for the ticket to me, especially because I had such an amazing view and look at old Ghost outfits, didn’t need to worry about arriving extremely early just to get a subpar place in the pit, and because it was amazing connecting to all the other fans who were also so passionate about the band. Would I recommend it to the average fan? No, but if you adore the band just as much or just really want to geek out about the band’s history (or fawn over the old outfits), I find that you should check it out.