Did you know today marks a month since Stray Kids - renowned 8 member K-Pop boy group - kicked off their 2 day stop in London? Playing in the magnificent Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, to over 60,000 people each night, it truly was a weekend to remember for all of us at Lilakshop. But now, since our post-concert depression has just begun to fade, I’m (Miri) going to rewind and remember all the fun of the 18th & 19th July 2025. Come along with me.
BACK TRACK TO NOVEMBER 2024.
Now, I don’t know about you but the excitement for Stray Kids in London started all the way back in November 2024 when the tickets went on sale. Scrambling at the last minute with 3 different Ticketmaster accounts while Facetiming the Lilakshop team to encourage and ready ourselves for the onslaught to come, it would be an understatement to say I felt stressed. There’s nothing quite like the rush of adrenaline and anxiety that ticketing for a concert provides, and you always feel like a champion afterwards if you succeed (in my case, it was pure relief).
Preparing ourselves for the worst, we were pleasantly surprised to have one of our devices semi-low on the queue count - “1083… 876… 400- I’M IN, GUYS I’M IN”. I bet you said that in your head with just the right amount of panic that I was feeling at this moment. Dots were evaporating in front of my eyes and the dreaded “these are no longer available” messages were just about driving my body to combust from the stress… until we hit the jackpot. VIP tickets for Stray Kids in London, 5th row from the front - how on earth did we manage this? HUZZAH!
After a further few minutes scrambling to get Ella & Emma their tickets (Amelie decided to brave the Ticketmaster war herself - a brave soldier), there were finally smiles across the board, a significant amount of money charged to the credit card (it was paid off, don’t be irresponsible with your money folks), and relief that it was completely over.
OR. SO. WE. THOUGHT.
Just around half an hour after success with day 1 ticketing, our phones buzzed from our X notifications, “Additional Day added to London. Tickets go on sale at 1:30pm”. I think my neck could’ve broken from how fast I checked the time - 1:10pm. TWENTY MINUTES? TWENTY MINUTES TO PREPARE? You’ve got to be kidding.
Insight into our conversations:
“No, we won’t do VIP again unless we get incredibly lucky…”
“We’ll just aim for some good seats a bit further back.”
“Should we even get tickets for day 2?”
Yeah, that ‘money saving’ notion didn’t last long because the Stray Kids ticketing gods were shining on us at that moment. I’m not exactly sure what we had done to deserve it but suddenly I was grateful I did all those chores when I was younger because that good karma (wink wink) had caught up on the one day in my life I needed it the most.
Queue time begun, buttons were furiously spammed and-
We got position 80 in the Ticketmaster queue. EIGHTY. WHAT?
Have you ever seen a queue position under 4 digits? I didn’t know it existed, it was like holding the crown jewels of England in my hand. I’m sure my next door neighbours thought I was being murdered from all the screaming that followed this realisation. I took one look at Cerys on Facetime and knew we had the potential to get some really good seats.
“Do we just send it?”
“Yeah, let’s do it. We only live once and I think we’d regret it if we didn’t take full advantage of this queue position. Money comes back.”
And when that screen blinked on with the map of seats my fingers moved faster than I have ever seen them move before. Pretty sure there was smoke coming from them, passing Usain Bolt and Lightning McQueen on the way.
FLASH. BANG. BLURRY MOMENTS OF PANIC AS WE TRIED TO GET SEATS.
VIP tickets… 5 rows from the front, day 2. Sorry, what?!
It was at this moment, we realised… WE WERE SEEING STRAY KIDS!
The relief, the excitement, and the slow tears that fell at the realisation of how much money we had spent, solidified this moment as one for the memory books. I had been waiting nearly six years for this day, throwing it all the way back to 2019 Brixton (if you know, you know) and just knew that 2025 was going to be a good year. Especially if the Lilakshop girlies were with me.
FAST FORWARD TO JULY 17TH 2025.
The day before. Outfits were prepped, bags were packed, Britain was experiencing a heatwave (yes, of all the times to actually get decent weather… and we were going to be in an outside stadium), and Cerys, Miri, & Amelie were on their way to London. Emma & Ella followed along after their shift, catching up with us at our AirBnB later.
With every intention to work on the train, the excitement of travelling, spending time with friends, seeing other friends we haven’t seen in years, and being so close to the Stray Kids stage, meant that little to no work got done. I blame the train wifi for distracting us… totally not our own fault (oops).
Big shout out to Caitlin and Taylor who we met on the train to London, it was great to spend some time with you guys and get even more excited about entering SKZ World the next day. We hope you both had an amazing time!
After a non-eventful train journey, stopping in Birmingham before moving forward to Euston and then tubing to Seven Sisters, we met up with our friend, Donnas, and went to our amazing AirBnB, just 10 mins drive from the stadium. Dropping off our stuff, we hopped into an Uber straight to the stadium to hit up the Pop-up merchandise and spend even more money on Stray Kids (it’s a lifestyle choice at this point).
Items acquired (for a group of 6 people):
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2x Ball caps
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1x Bucket Hat
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2x Grey Shirt
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3x White Shirt
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1x SKZOO Shirt
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3x Zip Up Hoodie
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1x Dwaekki Plushie
Quite the haul and very grateful to have gotten the merch beforehand, as trekking all of that into the venue would’ve killed me body, mind, and soul. I will always recommend going to the pop-up stores if you’re able to get to the concert the day before, it makes your life so much easier and the day of the concert that little bit less stressful.
(Pictures: Miri's dress broke, hence why she didn't have any straps)
With that done and a significant amount of damage done to our bank accounts, we went back to our AirBnB, caught up with Emma and Ella (who had arrived in London safely) and grabbed some food for dinner. Hyped and ready for Stray Kids Day 1 to begin.
10:30pm, Miri: “Well guys, best get to bed then. We’ll need to be up early tomorrow and it’ll be a late few nights ahead…”
2:30am, also Miri: “Girls, I love you guys so much… we’re seeing Stray Kids tomorrow, I can’t believe it. What a moment. I’m so emotional. I’m seeing Jeongin tomorrow”
It could be worse… I’m sure Ella & Emma didn’t get to sleep the entire night - oops!
DAY 1: FRIDAY JULY 18TH, 2025
Someone quote Frozen with me… IT’S CORONATION DAY!
Yet, it’s even more important than that (sorry Charles)… It's STRAY KIDS IN LONDON!
There’s nothing quite like the mixture of emotions that comes with a long awaited concert day: excitement, nerves, stress. With 6 girls in one place, hair dryers, straighteners and curlers on, you can imagine how hot our accommodation became - a cold Irn Bru was definitely needed to pump us full of sugar (2 Litre bottle was secured so we could survive).
Breakfast was consumed, bracelets and keychains packed up into freebie bags, pickets decorated (Ella & Emma the queens of decorating their items), makeup and outfits on and Uber ordered just in time for the VIP cut off. We were ready to go. Say a silent prayer for me, someone who decided that wearing a Maknae on Top inspired outfit with a thick fur coat in 26 degree heat was a good idea.
(Pictures: Apologies for the quality, it was screenshotted from a video)
*ONE UBER DRIVE WITH THE NICEST DRIVER LATER*
Sufficiently sweaty already, all 4 of us who were in VIP seats for Day 1 arrived. A big shout out to all the lovely STAYs we met in front of Tottenham Stadium, it was so amazing to meet you all and hand out our freebies. We were so overwhelmed by those who came up to say hello and tell us they had previously shopped with us - it meant so much. Never underestimate how much each and every one means to us, we hope you had the best time at the concert.
Now, we’ll take a quick fast forward to the concert as most of the hours were spent in the VIP queue waiting for soundcheck to start. It was boiling hot, the staff eventually gave out water, we were very sweaty and regretting not getting sugary drinks beforehand. The bars in the VIP area were not open, it was a moment of heightened emotions at the thought of a crisp Diet Coke. You get it… right?
Soundcheck complete and lungs already lacking air from all the screaming, we grabbed some food from the lobby (the hotdog lowkey slapped, did any of you have that too?) before heading back to our seats for the concert. Still in shock that we got this and unbelievably grateful.
I wish I had many more words to describe in detail how amazing the following few hours was but instead I’ll throw in some photos that encapsulate the experience, including an interaction Cerys and I had with Jeongin as he clocked all of our Foxi.ny merch when on the extended stage (thank you to the person who gave us their video, we were too busy trying to get his attention that neither of us filmed it).
Screaming at the top of our lungs at TOPLINE to feeling like I was floating on the clouds in Cinema (I found my name on the board as well as Ella’s name), we had an absolute blast. Emma and Ella danced all night, Amelie got so close to the SKZOO balloons and Cerys and Miri got sufficiently soaked by water.
It was worth it, even when we were hobbling back to the AirBnB with some very sore feet (my friend, Donnas will forever regret the heels she wore).
Midnight munchies were ordered, feet were soaked and showers were had. We all had a catch up on our favourite songs, interactions and experiences before heading to sleep in preparation for another exciting day of Stray Kids ahead.
12:30am, Cerys: “I’m absolutely exhausted. I’ll be asleep the second I hit the mattress”
2:30am, also Cerys: “Jeongin did this- Did you see how close Changbin was? Burnin’ Tires was so good. Oh my god, Miri… look at the time. We’ve been talking about SKZ for 2 hours.”
There goes our beauty sleep.
DAY 2: SATURDAY JULY 19TH, 2025
Excitement really does wonders for your energy levels because I sure believe that if someone had walked into our room on the morning of day 2, they would’ve thought the Walking Dead was back for another season. I was not okay and I’m sure the rest of the girls felt exactly the same.
While my feet were aching and I swear the mattress was calling me… “Miri, come back to sleep… you know you want to” - all of us were up and ready for another day full of Stray Kids.
*WEATHER ALERT - TORRENTIAL RAIN ALL AFTERNOON*
Ponchos on, Uber booked, Teletubby looks acquired and all 4 Lilakshop girls (Natty and Amelie were not at day 2) were heading to the stadium.
Now, again, we’re fast forwarding a bit as we spent the following hours sitting with ponchos on in the pouring rain looking like wet dogs. It was quite poetic actually. Someone should’ve put the song ‘Mad World’ over us sitting looking defeated.
We filmed our OOTDs, held a funeral for Miri’s Jeongin picket that got water damaged, and exchanged freebies in the queue. All before heading to our seats for soundcheck.
It was at this moment, Miri and Cerys realised their 5th row seats had only 1 person in front of them (due to the layout of the stage). A moment of silence for our sanity because it was truly gone. We hope the lovely duo in front of us had a great time, they were excellent concert friends to have and we were so glad to see her get her interaction with Chan that she so desperately wanted. As well as our friends two rows behind us, who were frequent customers of Lilakshop, we had so much fun chatting to you.
Talking about interactions, Cerys and I got a second interaction with Jeongin with our Foxi.ny items as well as some brief waves and finger hearts from Jisung. I was truly transported back to my 15 year old self crashing out at any Y/N moment (don’t judge, it was her first experience of fanfiction okay?) and was having the time of my life.
Exhausted from our outer body experiences from Soundcheck, all four of us grabbed some food, got some fresh air and were sufficiently ‘toilet checked’ (just in case). I swear I will always miss the hotdogs, they were so good.
Now, it’s time for my day 2 concert pictures and videos to describe an indescribable experience. We were all genuinely on cloud nine (does anyone else remember that Disney Channel movie? Banger.)
From high fiving Changbin to being metres away from the beauty that is Christopher Bang, Stray Kids in London was an unforgettable experience, one I’m so glad to have been able to have with the Lilakshop girls. With relatively smooth travel all-round and no ticket issues, we were free to just soak in every moment - a true joy after waiting 8 months for these days.
We are so incredibly proud of Stray Kids for putting on some amazing performances, two of many across the world, with so much energy and life. For selling out Tottenham Hotspur Stadium… not just once, but TWICE!
It was worth every penny spent.
Now just to kick back and relax, living through the joy of our experience.
*X NOTIFICATION: “STRAY KIDS 4TH FULL ALBUM, ‘KARMA’ OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT & PRE-ORDER PERIOD*
For. Goodness. Sake.
It’s comeback time.
