British pop star Harry Styles played a one-off show in Manchester in the UK last Friday (6 March), and fans could only take photos of the night on a film camera.
Instead of shooting on a phone, each pair of ticketholders for the One Night in Manchester gig at the Manchester Co-Op Arena was handed a Harry Styles-branded disposable camera and told to use this instead of their phones or smart glasses to take pictures.
“Anyone using a digital recording device during the performance will be asked to stop and if they do not, they may be asked to leave,” the BBC reported ahead of the concert.
Gig-goers had to hand over their phones which were then put into a special bag which prevented the phone’s cameras from being used.
It is thought the phone ban partly came about because the one-off concert, ahead of a world tour, was being recorded for a Netflix special.
“Last night we were handed disposable cameras at Harry Styles’ one-night-only show at Co-op Live and for once, there wasn’t a phone in sight,” local Manchester site The Manc said on its Facebook page.
“The gig followed a strict no phones policy ahead of his upcoming Netflix project, meaning fans were fully living in the moment while capturing memories on disposable cameras instead.”
It is thought as many as 10,000 disposable cameras were made available for the gig.
Film processing labs in the UK are now being deluged with disposable cameras shot during the concert – though many Styles fans are learning first hand that disposable film cameras aren’t able to take the same well-exposed pictures in low light as their smartphones (though they do , of course, take much better pics at close quarters with the flash on). Others who flew in to Manchester for the gig have been posting on social media worried that airport x-ray machines will ruin their films.
It’s not the first time film cameras have cropped up in the Harry Styles’ universe. Styles released a special edition of his latest album ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally’ with a branded reusable 35mm camera.
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Good for Harry Stiles – “Give ’em Harry”