I Survived the Manchester Concert Bombing

Photo credit: Courtesy photo.
Photo credit: Courtesy photo.

From Cosmopolitan

Photo credit: Courtesy photo.
Photo credit: Courtesy photo.

Fifteen-year-old Abigail attended her first concert Monday night - the Manchester stop on Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman” world tour. Her dad Taz and stepmom Janis had chaperoned Abigail and a friend there from the nearby city of Wakefield, where the family live, and were waiting outside Manchester Arena at 10:30 p.m. to pick them up and drive them home. And then a bomb exploded. Speaking with Cosmopolitan.com on Wednesday, Abigail and Janis recount their stories from the evening, and the days since.

Abigail: I’d never been to any of Ariana’s concerts before, but I know she can sing live really well. This was my first-ever concert, actually. I got tickets in the presale last year, so I’d been excited for the show for a good six months. I had planned out my outfits and my makeup and everything. I was going to get some [of the “Dangerous Woman” tour] merchandise but I ended up get my nails done beforehand instead.

The concert was on a Monday - a school night. [My friend and I who were at the show together] go to the same school, and we have a lot of classes together. We literally just could not wait - we were listening [to her music] all day. One of our teachers asked, “Why are you so excited today?” and I remember telling him, “’Cause we're going to see Ariana Grande tonight!”

"The show was everything I wanted it to be and more. I didn't stop singing the whole time."

I remember my dad being like, “It's going to be really loud, you’re going to get really hot and sweaty,” but when I was there, I couldn’t think about anything else except for Ariana. I was just so in awe of her - the show was everything I wanted it to be and more. I didn't stop singing the whole time. By the end of the show, my throat felt like it was on fire, because I'd just been screaming with excitement. And then the lights came back on and I was like, Oh no, it's over.

Janis: [Taz and I] had driven Abigail and her friend to the concert, so we stayed for the evening in Manchester fairly near the arena just to pass time and headed back there around 10:30 p.m. to pick them up - we were trying to [find a parking space] in the street where we’d arranged to collect them.

After we parked, Taz got out of the car and looked over to the arena and he said straight away, “Oh, there’s people already running out.” Within a minute of him saying that, Abigail was calling us. We have the phone on speakerphone in the car, so we could both hear what she was saying. She was hysterical, talking very fast - almost hyperventilating. We didn’t know where she was at this point; we actually both thought that she was being attacked. But [we could make out] bits of words - I caught that she said a bomb had gone off, or something like that. There was a gentleman parked next to our car and, because we were on speakerphone, he could hear what was being said. And he said to us, “I’ve just heard an explosion.”

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

Abigail: [After the show ended] I think we just sat there for a minute or two, just taking it in, and checking our phones - I remember saying, “Oh my gosh, this night was incredible.” And then we began trying to leave, [although] there were loads of people in front of us. We couldn’t see much because we’re both quite short, but [the crowd] wasn’t moving very fast. So we were about halfway up the stairs [to the exits] when we heard this loud sound. A massive noise. And I remember my friend saying to me, “Was that a light?” I think she thought a light had exploded but I knew straight away that it was not a light. I thought - no, I knew something awful had happened but I just didn't want to say so in case it wasn't true. And then we saw people from closer to [the exits] start running and screaming and falling over seats and things like that. My friend froze, so I grabbed her hand, and we ran along a row of seats to get to a different exit.

"You know when you burn yourself on a candle? It smelled like that."

[When we got to this exit,] some security people were there, and they told us to stay still and to stay there. While we were waiting, there were quite a few people screaming and crying and trying to get out - there was this woman with her boyfriend, and she had quite a big gouge taken out of her leg, and it was bleeding everywhere. I looked at one of the security people and said to him, “Please, can we go?” At first they were still saying, “No, just stay here," but [after a minute or two,] they opened the doors, so I grabbed my friend’s hand and ran. I was in survival mode, my dad says. I was on the phone with him at the time, just crying - I don't think I could actually get words out. As we were running past [the concession stands in the arena's foyer], we could see people’s belongings, drinks, foods, all over the floor. And trails of blood. And body parts. We could see smoke and smell fire, and this other smell too - the smell of burning flesh. You know when you burn yourself on a candle? It smelled like that.

Janis: We didn’t realize that, at this point, Abigail was still inside the arena - well, [she and her friend were] running out, trying to get to us. I was trying to calm her down, trying to find out where they were, and Taz said, “I’ll go look, you keep her on the phone and try and get them to head this way.” That’s what we did. He headed back up to the arena, [although] you couldn’t go into there at that point - security had shut down the doors where the explosion had happened. But he obviously saw a lot of people bloody and injured, as did Abigail, and basically a lot of frantic parents trying to find the children and vice versa. Everybody was just ... everywhere, running across the roads, some people very dazed. I saw many girls and boys wandering about and crying, just trying to get away from the arena.

Photo credit: Courtesy photo.
Photo credit: Courtesy photo.

Abigail: When we got out of the arena, we had to run down these stairs, and there were distressed people tripping over, screaming and crying some more. And there were loads of injured people, bleeding people, ambulances, police sirens, shouting and yelling. It was crazy. We didn't know where we were going; we just followed the crowds because we knew we needed to get away.

Janis: I was still talking to Abigail, trying to find out where she was by asking her questions, “What can you see? What buildings are around you?” [In their panic,] she and her friend had run out in the wrong direction, [but I was able to redirect her,] and they headed back toward us. Luckily, Taz then spotted them across a road and brought them back to the car.

Once we got in the car, I just said, “We need to get home now.” We wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible. [In the car,] I think we were all just quite numb. There was relief in finding Abigail; that point in time when we were trying to find her, we’d obviously been panicking. On the drive, reports were already coming in on the radio that there’d been an incident at the arena, and they mentioned fatalities, so we knew a very serious thing had happened - and actually, when Taz went to the arena, he heard [security guards] say that it was a suicide bomber. We didn’t know that until we got back home though because he didn’t tell us in the car.

None of us really slept a great deal that night. We had Abigail’s friend staying over; they’d planned a sleepover. I think the reality came upon us within the first hour or so of getting up the next morning. [Taz and I] thought it would be best if the girls tried to go to school. Abigail wasn’t getting upset at that point, but once they got there, that’s when the emotions came out.

"We just walked around, and I was thinking, It's so weird that we're back here when yesterday just happened and now we’re back to real life."

Abigail: Yes, I don't think it fully hit me until the next day. In the morning, my friend and I were getting ready for school together, but weren't really talking to each other. But as soon as we got into the car, the radio was on and they were playing audio [from the bombing aftermath]. We could hear all these people screaming and crying, and then I started crying and so did my friend. We still went to school - Janis works there, so we arrived quite early. We just walked around, and I was thinking, It's so weird that we're back here when yesterday just happened and now we’re back to real life. It was a lot to deal with - there were people coming up and asking me if I was OK and wanting me to describe what happened. I wanted [support from] my close friends and my family, but I was getting a lot of attention I didn't want. [That morning,] we were in the cafeteria and there was this loud noise, and I jumped up and had a bit of a panic attack. I couldn't breathe and I started crying - I cried all of yesterday, kind of. Our school set up this private room for [my friend and I] to sit and talk about it all; we were in there for basically half of the day. And I didn’t go to school today.

Janis: Abigail didn’t eat much at all yesterday and again, none of us slept very well. But we're a close family and she’s talked about things with us - I think we’ve learned [today] more about [what happened to her] that night, what she actually saw and went through. She was heading for the [same] exit doors where the explosion happened; we’ve been very lucky that she got out without being injured. But obviously, she’s got other things going in her head right now. It’s just been a very emotional past 24 hours.

Abigail: I still feel like I am in shock. It’s a lot to process. But I know I am angry that this extremist has taken away the experience of my first concert from me - and taken lives. I was expecting to walk out of the show singing and dancing and happy, but instead I went out of that arena screaming for help, slipping in blood, my brain frozen in terror.

You Might Also Like