Toronto had a weekend full of The Weeknd. The Scarborough native hosted a listening party for his new album, Starboy, on Thursday, then performed at Canada’s inaugural Jingle Ball at the ACC on Friday night. In the meantime, die-hard fans lined up outside Rally on Ossington from Thursday to Sunday to snag limited-edition Weeknd merch. Here’s what a few of them picked up on Saturday.
24, Transporter at Etobicoke General Hospital Spent: $150 “I’ve been listening to The Weeknd since I was 18. On Thursday, I woke up at 5 a.m. to get tickets for the listening party that night. We waited until maybe 9 p.m. to meet him. Today, the wait was about two hours. It was totally worth the wait both times. And the money.”
22, Student Spent: $155 “I went to the meet and greet. I’ve been a fan since he first came out six or seven years ago. This is like my teenage dream.”
15, Student Spent: $110 “I listen to his music all the time and I think he has a really nice sense of style, so when I saw he had a pop-up shop I thought it was a good opportunity to come and buy his merchandise. It’s also limited edition so you can’t really find it anywhere.”
17, Student Spent: $260 “The bombers were sold out, so I was kind of disappointed.”
16, Student Spent: $160 “I wanted to get merchandise to wear to his show next year.”
25, Civil Engineer Spent: $300 “I’ve been listening to The Weeknd since 2011. I missed the chance to buy merchandise in the past because I was in school, so I couldn’t afford everything. But now that I have a job I want to support the artist.”
18, Student Spent: $585 “We came here on Thursday expecting to meet The Weeknd. We waited for maybe an hour and a half, and they ran out of wristbands, so we only ended up getting the wristband to skip the line for the listening party.”
21, Student Spent: $250 “I met him yesterday. It was unbelievable. We weren’t allowed to take photos so I recorded it on my phone and you can hear me stuttering. I wasn’t able to get out what I wanted to say but as soon as I saw him, he smiled. It was amazing, it was surreal.”
19, Student Spent: $110 “We waited overnight on Wednesday, for nine-and-a-half hours, to meet him on Thursday. It was amazing.”
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