My girlfriends and I strutted around the AO Arena to our entrance, enrobed in our earth-toned tops, flowy skirts and cowboy heels, suited and booted for Noah Kahan’s highly anticipated tour. Others were dressed in wings and antennae, bringing big bug energy. We joined queues of people just like us – waiting to be let into the palace of Kahan.

Light-up wristbands were thrust at us as we entered; a light show was in store. Queues snaked around the swirling hallways that wrapped around the venue. The merch stand had the biggest queue, toting £40 t-shirts and £80 hoodies for Kahan’s fans. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted. Refreshments were our next stop: £9.50 for a pint! Two gin and lemonades and three bottles of water; we were set back £40 for the pleasure.

Us and 23,000 others scurried into the arena to take our positions for the long-awaited sold-out show.

Bella Kay took the stage. Performing her hits ‘iloveitiloveitiloveit’ and ‘The Sick’ made the crowd roar. Her passionate sentiment paralleled Noah Kahan’s tender lyrics. Kay brought her own indie pop flavour to the colony as people scuttled in. Our seats were secured in the upper tier, up in the gods were we waited for the man himself to grace us with his presence.

A porch and a roofless housefront sit at the back of the stage. Foliage and moss are scattered across the patio slabs that fill the floor. The stage tunnels through the nest, creating a small pocket of followers at the very front, becoming part of the porch.

A large countdown clock appears, one minute to go. Small bugs crawl around the backing screen. A roof descends from the ceiling. The band break out into the front garden. The drummer settles himself behind his set, the bassist pairs next to him, and four others enter, switching string instruments throughout the set: banjos, fiddles, violins, resonator guitars and such, a common practice in folk music.

Kahan bursts through the faux door on the main stage. A total of 24 songs were played on the setlist; Kahan and the band were on the stage for two hours, never flailing once. The set begins with ‘American Cars’, and there is so much energy in the band as they run through gut-wrenching melodies and heart-breaking ballads.  ‘All My Love’ – a favourite of mine – was performed in Act One of a six-act performance.

Act Two kicks off on the B stage for ‘Downfall’ and ‘Haircut’. Kahan receives a call on a phone box and rushes back to the main stage for Act Three. ‘Dial Drunk’ causes the cloud of devotees to cry each word to the hit song from his Stick Season album; the light-up wristbands on each of us flash from blue to red. The band treats the stage as a playground, chasing each other and dancing around. A quiet moment falls on the hive, the stage dark, on tiptoes we lean over the balcony edge to see where Kahan had disappeared. Never did I imagine he’d reappear on the roof of the house.

Act Four brings ‘Porch Light’ and ‘Willing and Able’. While worried he would fall we all continued to howl each lyric as the smoke machine worked overtime, vapour pouring off the stage.

Act Five took Kahan through the flutter of fans to stage C, a platform propped up near the sound desk, floating in the middle of the sea of adoring fans. After a quick joke about the crowd staring at his arse and how his Stick Season money went on a BBL, he broke into the beautiful ‘Orbiter’ and ‘Strawberry Wine’.

Back to the main stage for Act Six and a promise that these were the last few songs. ‘Northern Attitude’ and ‘New Perspective’ had me tearing up while grinning from ear to ear, staring across the kaleidoscope of butterflies with their twinkling wristbands, all feeling the exact elation that I did. The band left the stage, and while we all knew an encore was coming, it felt like a prelude to the end.

They returned for ‘Homesick’ and ‘Stick Season’, accompanied by a brass section including trumpet and sax!

And suddenly it was over; the Ticketmaster fight that brought us all here had reached its conclusion. With tears in our eyes – happy and sad – we swarmed out of the venue, and thousands of fans flooded the streets of Manchester, back out into the cold. While our bones were chilly, our hearts had been warmed; we were The Last of The Bugs.