Charli XCX's Surprise Concert: A Unique Music Experience

Charli XCX's Unforgettable Surprise Concert

It's 12 p.m. on Thursday and I am running through the streets of Brooklyn. I have to be out of New York City and on the highway north to reach Storm King Art Center by 3 p.m., when Charli XCX will be bumping her new album at a surprise listening party. Streaming in from directions unknown, hundreds of other fans have likewise shirked their responsibilities for the day—skipping work and school, canceling plans, ditching kids with partners—and booked it to this 500-acre sculpture park in New Windsor, New York, on the vague premise of exclusively hearing Charli XCX's latest music the day before the album's release.

Devoted Fans Make the Journey

Some have taken four-hour trains; others carpooled with strangers; the most die-hard brats are seeing her for the fourth or fifth time, after having followed her to California, Spain, and beyond. For her part, I know Charli XCX herself will be on a plane the minute the show ends, given she's in the middle of her North America tour.

A Stunning Concert Environment

In a matter of hours, we will be in the middle of a tawny field, a crowd dressed in acidic brat green and leather throbbing to dance music while Charli XCX flips her hair on a makeshift stage, with fiery fall foliage and large-scale sculptures by Alice Aycock and Mark di Suvero towering in the periphery. The sheer brattiness it took to be here, and the sheer coolness of the scene unfolding, courses through everyone's veins.

Charli XCX, muse and creator of “brat summer” and queen pop star of the moment, announced the free pop-up event just a few days ago on her Instagram with the time, place, a space to RSVP, and just a few words. The excitement in the air is palpable, as fans await a singular moment with their idol.