News: Meet And Greet Info

2017 UPDATE: Tori is doing M&Gs on the Native Invader Tour. Info below still applies, but on this tour Tori has generally been arriving at the venues earlier and has chatted with more people than she’s been able to in the past, so most people who have gone to the M&Gs this time around have gotten a chance to say hello.

2014 UPDATE: Tori is doing M&Gs on the Unrepentent Geraldines Tour. Info below still applies.

2012 UPDATE: Tori is doing M&Gs on the Gold Dust Orchestral Tour. Unless we hear otherwise, most of the info below probably still applies to how they’ll be working this time around.

2011 UPDATE: The following info is still pretty much the same. Tori is doing M&Gs on the NOH tour unless there’s a scheduling conflict, extreme weather (snow may force cancellations on the U.S. leg), or security issues at venues. Sometimes we find out about cancellations in advance, but not always — when we do, we usually send a notice out on Twitter, so it pays to keep an eye on our stream there.

2009 UPDATE: During the American Doll Posse tour in 2007, we didn’t hear about much, if any, unpleasant behavior at the meet and greets, so hopefully problems will be relatively absent this time as well. Be that as it may, the rest of this article, as well as Mikewhy’s FAQ, still should hold fairly true for the upcoming tour. As of the end of July 2009, M&Gs have been very pleasant and Tori has made an effort to talk to everyone. However, several have been cancelled due to conflicts or extreme heat. There is no way we call tell you in advance whether there will be a M&G for your particular show.

On the eve of the North American tour, Meet and Greets are a common subject in the comments and questions we’ve received lately, so we put together this post which, we hope, will address the questions we’ve gotten — as well as those we haven’t!

Much of the below is cribbed from MikeWhy’s Meet and Greet FAQ, which is an excellent reference as much of what Mike wrote is very much still applicable.

As the tour goes on, we’ll post any news or information we hear about what’s going on on the M&G front to try and keep folks up to speed.

Before soundcheck on the day of a show, Tori will often come out to meet with fans, sign autographs, and pose for photos. These events normally take place in the mid- to late-afternoon, and there is no formal organization.

Tori has said that there will be M&Gs during the North American tour, however (as has always been the case) M&Gs are not set in stone. Tori herself decides whether she’s able to do a M&G before a show based on her schedule that day. If she’s running behind, she may not have time. If she does come out to meet with fans, there is no guarantee that you will have a chance to speak with her. It’s the luck of the draw, really, and the larger the crowd, the lower your chances. Still, plenty of people have done it.

There is no set time or location for the meet and greets. Tori often has radio interviews and promo obligations in the cities where she performs. These can affect the time she arrives at the venue. As a general rule, M&Gs usually take place between 2:00pm-5:30pm near the stage door, loading dock, or even the front of the venue near the main door. If you walk around the exterior of the venue, you will usually come across a place where there are trucks, tour buses, crew milling about, and a group of people who look suspiciously like they might be into red-haired singer/songwriters. Congratulations, you’re in the right place.

When should you be there? Some fans start showing up early in the morning, but that’s more an exception than a rule these days. (We recommend mid- to late morning as of the Native Invader tour. Based on what people have said so far, most M&Gs this time around have been closer to 2pm than late afternoon.)

In the past, there have been attempts by fans to create a numbering system so that the people who were there first would be guaranteed a spot up front. It isn’t difficult to see how that system could be unfairly manipulated by the fans organizing it or by the line being moved to a different location or by people simply ignoring the numbers, and that’s how it frequently played out, so it isn’t always effective or fair. Still, fans at some shows may try to implement a numbering system, but be aware there’s no guarantee it will be accepted or enforced by Tori’s security or even the other fans around you. In the end, it comes down to fans being considerate and helping each other.

Since we’ve not been to any M&Gs ourselves on this current tour, we can only tell you how they’ve worked in the past, so here’s how it usually goes…

At some point, Tori’s security people will set up metal barricades before she arrives and move the crowd behind them. Basically you can expect to be corraled like cattle. The front of the barricade is almost always small, often only about 15 feet wide. Tori will stand on the opposite side of the barricades and will move down the line, only meeting the fans who are at the front. That means there will only be about 20 people who can speak with her personally. (People in the front are usually not permitted to move aside so that fans behind them can move to the front, but Tori has often spoken to people in the second row between front-row individuals.)

Unfortunately this does mean that rude, aggressive people often end up at the front. This does mean that people who have been there all day could find themselves nowhere near Tori. And it does mean there can be a lot of unpleasant pushing and shoving and screaming as people try to get to the front of the barricades. No, it isn’t fair, but much of life isn’t. The best you can do is show up, pray that the stars are in your favor, and hope for the best. There are some M&Gs where people are kind and respectful, and those experiences are wonderful; we’d like to think the odds go up for everyone when the crowd behaves responsibly. But in the end, regardless of whether you shove or wait patiently, you still may not meet Tori.

Sometimes the barricades are moved to another spot, and that can be particularly unfun. No attempt is made by security to keep people in their pre-existing order, so it’s sheer pandemonium. We’ve seen people who were at the back suddenly find themselves up front because the M&G location has been shifted at the last minute and the people at the back made it to the new corral first. Fortunately that doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

We hope this is helpful. If you have any questions — or if you want to tell us about your experience at a current M&G — just drop us a line.