I shared this story on my Tumblr page, but I think it's worth it to share it again, since it's one of my favorite memories from 2012. This picture was taken with my father's camera (a Nikon S3100) and it takes wonderful pictures, but sometimes without the flash, the photos can look a bit blurry, like this one. But I think that this is one of the main reasons why I love this photo so much, not only because of the good memories it brings me, but also because of the personal and emotional meaning behind it.

"I Just Wanted To Hold You In My Arms..."

(yes, I am using a Muse song to talk about The Maccabees)

Meeting The Maccabees last year was a huge shock to me and to my cousin, mostly because we’ve never met an artist we both admire before. I went to last year’s edition of Planeta Terra festival with her and I didn’t really know what to expect, but I knew something amazing was going to happen on that 20th of October. The Maccabees were scheduled to perform at Claro Indie Stage at 17h45mins and they arrived on time, opening the gig with ‘Child’, to warm up the fans and prepare them for the rest of the wonderful gig. I wish I could put into words what their gig was like but, sadly, I can’t, since I was sort of a ‘beginner’ on the Maccabees fandom. They finished with ‘Pelican’ and then left the stage and my cousin decided she wanted to try to meet them and I wasn’t 200% sure because even though the festival ‘wasn’t’ exactly crowded – 35 thousand people – and perhaps they would just head backstage quickly and then leave. But we decided to risk it. So we arrived to the band area and there were two securities on the entrance and my cousin started asking them ‘do you if the Maccabees already left the backstage?’ and I’m not really sure if the guy was being ironic or maybe uninterested, but he said he doesn’t even know who was on the stage and my cousin started explaining who The Maccabees are and the security said he doesn’t know who this band is – shame on him, by the way. And then we decided to wait. My cousin forgot to bring her camera and I was the one responsible for the pictures and by the time their gig finished, it wasn’t exactly dark, but it was the beginning of it and there were some beautiful clouds around and the sky was in this bluish-grey color so I decided to have a photo of it with me (the photo of this post), because you could see not only the festival itself, but you could also get some city view. And my cousin told me to stop taking pictures because we might meet them and there were some other fans waiting and they were all peeking and trying to see the band. I found out later that they did an interview with Club NME and that the interview was inside the backstage, but we weren’t aware of it so we just kept our fingers crossed and we had faith they’d show up. Minutes later, some guys started coming outside and, if I’m not mistaken, my cousin recognized Will first and said ‘Oh, that’s Will’ and the other guys showed up. Orlando, Sam and Rupert were smoking, if I’m not mistaken and the other three were just chatting and drinking beer – Devassa, by the way, Paris Hilton’s (now Megan Fox’s) beer – and maybe talking about their gig. We waited, some girls asked if the securities could go there and call them but the answer was ‘no’ because they had to keep an eye in case anyone decides to get in so we did the only thing we could: we waited. While waiting, we noticed Felix was heading nearby the stage – we thought he had forgotten something – and while he was going towards the stage, I gathered some of the little courage – I was shaking already, I’ve never been so close yet so far away from an artist – and I yelled ‘Felix’ and some other girls did it. He looked at us and waved and then we started calling him and he started running towards us, all happy and jumpy, like he always is. Usually when an artist comes to talk to a fan, it is sort of ‘standard’ for them to shake hands or just say ‘hi’ but when Felix arrived, he hugged me – yes, I was the first – and rubbed his hands on my back, saying ‘hi’ all happy. I thanked them for coming and said they were ‘absolutely amazing’ – I don’t know how I managed to say that, my voice was barely coming out – and he looked at me surprised and said ‘Oh, thank you’, sort of thinking ‘We are not that good’. You are not good, Felix, you are amazing. He then hugged my cousin and she asked for a photo and a fan was kind enough to take if for us and then we chatted for a little while, I tried to say ‘we came to see you and the…’ and my cousin completed with ‘the Kings Of Leon!’ and he showed his access to their gig and smiled. I don’t really remember what happened next – the only bad thing about meeting your favorite artist is that if you get nervous, some amazing moments can easily flash by – but I think he signed something for a fan and I shared some tears and my cousin tried to keep me calm and she succeed for a while. Nice work, girl. Then Orlando arrived and a group of girls made a little circle around him and since he’s a really shy – but extremely nice – guy, he didn’t hug anyone, he arrived and said ‘hi’. I mentioned Mari’s (hellyeahthemaccabees) page because they made a video for her saying ‘hi’ and he looked at me, smiled and said ‘Oh, wow, that’s great’ and then I mentioned he looked nervous and he once again smiled and said ‘Yeah, I was quite nervous’ and I said they were amazing and he thanked me. I know, I shouldn’t have said that, but… Some girls started talking about him speaking Portuguese and Orlando looked ashamed, saying ‘it’s a beautiful language and I ruined it’ but the fans said he has an amazing pronunciation and he smiled and said ‘Obrigado’ (thank you). My cousin then once again asked if we could take a picture and we did – I’m taller than Orlando, by the way – and we thanked him once again and I started crying – I know – and Felix, who was talking to another girl, got worried and approached me and put his hand on my shoulder saying ‘No, don’t cry’, it’s okay’ and everything was extremely well, but I don’t manage my emotions really well, so… A fan that was around came and hugged me – thank you very much – and then Hugo showed up, hugging everyone and taking pictures. There was no one to take the pictures for me and my cousin because they were either with Felix or Orlando but my cousin decided to try to take the pictures herself and so I hugged Hugo and he hugged me back, putting his head near mine – I’ve got no idea why, but I deleted that photo, but I still have the memory of it and I hope it never goes away – and the picture got taken but without the flash and my cousin sort of freaked out because she started saying ‘there’s something wrong with the flash’ and she seemed sort of freaked out so I tried to fix it but she kept hurrying me up and then I just turned and I yelled something to her to make her wait – yes, in front of Hugo – and I was sort of crying – I think it’s time to say I’m a cry baby – and then I got the flash to work and she asked to another fan to take the photo – thanks to all the girls who took the pictures, by the way – and there it was. I apologized for yelling at her in front of him – not with those words, I simply said ‘I’m sorry’ – and he smiled and said ‘no it’s okay’, quite normally, because – hopefully – I’m not the only person who cried while meeting and talking to them. Then Will was the last one to arrive – it’d have been amazing to meet Rupert and Sam, but I don’t personally think I’d be able to survive, haha – and we took the picture and me and my cousin stayed with him chatting and then some girls gave Hugo our flag and took a picture of him holding it – I wonder where they find time to buy the flags, haha – and I asked Will if the band was already working on a new album and he asked me to repeat the question – he said ‘What?’ and even bent down a little bit to hear, such a nice man – and I repeated and he answered it by saying they were planning to start next year, because they’d go on tour on February and they said they’d come back – take all the time you need, guys, we’ll always wait – to perform here and I thanked him – I guess – and 5 seconds later, he turned to me and said ‘bye’ and hugged me and I sort of said ‘already?’ and he said ‘yeah’ and smiled and then he hugged my cousin – I can’t remember what Felix did, I think he either followed Orlando to the middle of the crowd – like I said, they were going to watch the Kings Of Leon – or perhaps went to the backstage to pick something. Then Hugo arrived and I was extremely ashamed because of what happened earlier and he showed our flag and we celebrated and then he accidentally dropped it – I think he did it twice, I’m not 200% sure – and I bent down to pick it, but my cousin was faster – I was trembling – and gave it to him and he hugged her then hugged me and I accidentally – sorry, by the way – bumped my shaking hands in his armpit – not exactly in the armpit, but near it and I moved it and apologized and he once again said ‘no, it’s okay’ – they are so sweet and humble and I think that’s why it’s so hard to believe they are part of an amazing band – we thank them for being The Maccabees from the bottom of our hearts – because you know what they say about some big bands: the more success, the more they become distant from the fans, but The Maccabees are there to prove theopposite – and he hugged me and, like Felix, he rubbed his hands in my back and then he left with Will and me and my cousin went somewhere else because she wanted to call her family to tell them what happened – besides, her mom didn’t believe her, she started saying she was joking or lying and my cousin sort of panicked – and I confirmed it, crying a lot and just wishing we could go back and relive these moments forever. Hopefully we’ll do it someday. Felix, Hugo and Will held me in their arms and they made me feel okay with the fact that it’s okay to cry and be shocked, because they are humans just like their fans and they prove their humanity by simply showing up and giving us a hug, saying ‘hi’, taking pictures and chatting to us for short – but memorable – minutes.

And that’s why me and my cousin love and treasure them so much. xxx

I hope you all like this photo and thank you everybody for suggesting and featuring my previous post! xxx