Tom Petric, Annette Dawm, Schwartz Abdul, Dallas Smith and Jason Petric. Photo by Julie at BX93.
On April 6, 2017, Dallas Smith and Petric came to the Covent Garden Market in London for free! Around this time last year, Dallas came to the market and hundreds of people came to get a meet and greet. So this time, the meet and greets were going to be drawn from a ballot box and people were told to come early. I got there around 12:30 and the artists didn't arrive until 3PM. This seems like a bit much but when they did something similar for Dean Brody, I wasn't early enough. (Although he did run by and sign my picture!) So I didn't mind to wait. To my surprise, hundreds of people did not show up and that could have been because of the weather. A much smaller group of maybe 30 people were in attendance.
A friend of mine got Dallas' autograph right away and I wasn't quick enough to have my Sharpie ready so I thought I missed out. Dallas didn't perform as he was there to promote Petric. CTV London put together an awesome video that you can watch here but skip ahead to about 24 minutes. Here's a spoiler if the top photo wasn't enough haha.
Dallas always remembers Schwartz! Probably because one time Schwartz got into his tour bus bed.
Thank you Carmen Choney for making that happen in 2012!
Gary Taylor from BX93 did a group interview with Dallas and Petric. Dallas waved at me and I thought that was that. Then Petric performed and they still hadn't done the draw for the meet and greet. As more people trickled in, I didn't think I'd be picked because my ballot was on the bottom.
Then something really cool happened.
I wasn't paying much attention and then all of a sudden, Dallas was right in front of me asking if I wanted my picture signed! UM... YES PLEASE! The last time he was there it was very fast paced and no autographs were allowed, so I was very surprised! Also with the meet and greets yet to be selected, I didn't know if I'd be allowed to take a picture with him at this time. I asked anyway and you know what he said? "Of course can!" NO WAY. Then I got a hug too. Imagine that! My day had just been made and then Gary said everyone could come downstairs for pictures! (Screw you, ballot box! Haha!)
Dallas asked me downstairs if I wanted another picture and someone laughed and said, "Of course she does!"
The Petric boys were surprised to see me as well! This was my third time seeing them at the market and Jason said, "You're here every time we come to London!!! We'll be back soon and we'll look for you!"
You could tell Dallas was so proud of them in that moment. When I brought out my picture with Petric, he was probably the most excited and told them, "You gotta sign it! You gotta sign it!"
It's days like this when I am so glad I live in London and I'm able to have such amazing opportunities! Most of which are free! I can't wait to see who comes to the market next, but it will be pretty hard to top this day!
