Six months ago today, May 22nd, 2017, the whole world was collectively stunned and saddened when an awful terrorist attack took place at Ariana Grande’s concert at the Manchester Arena. 22 people lost their lives in the attack and over 500 were injured out of the 21,000 who were at the concert but no one who went into the arena came out the same, even six months after it still greatly affects everyone. Ariana Grande was, of course, devastated, but returned to Manchester just 2 weeks later, with a lot of celebrity supporters like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, for a benefit concert in honour of all of the people at her concert which raised around £17 million for the We Love Manchester fund and the British Red Cross.
The city of Manchester is also still recovering from the attack, the city was in mourning for months and as of August 2017 has declared that there will be a permanent memorial to the victims and their families in the city centre.
Many peoples attitude when terrorist attacks take place is that it will always happen to other people, but what happens when you are ‘other people’?
On that night I was ‘other people’. In the beginning, it was a room full of people who just wanted to have a good time and listen to Ariana’s music but ended in tragedy. I will truly never forget the concert or the aftermath. I can recall the exact moments after it happened like it was yesterday.
There was a huge bang and for a second it was entirely silent, you could’ve heard a pin drop on the ground, which was extremely strange at the end of a concert, and probably a millisecond later it was chaos. People were screaming and climbing the seats and railings desperate to get out and others were laying covering themselves on the floor waiting for another bang. But that was only inside the arena outside was a whole other world, once outside it was even more chaotic, parents who were picking up children were panicking and street vendors were using their t-shirts to help bandage wounds of injured victims. At first, there was huge speculation on what the bang was, some said it was a balloon popping in the tunnel which echoed and others said a speaker had blown, but it was revealed that it was indeed a terrorist attack, making everyone’s heart heavy with sorrow.
Please do not just forget about terrorist attacks a week after they happen, please be aware and sensitive to people who have experienced them because it is a tragedy that we have to live with for the rest of our lives.
