Hundreds of excited fans turned out to catch a glimpse of teenage pop sensation Justin Bieber when he arrived in Perth this afternoon for his sell-out concert at Burswood Dome tomorrow night.
Many had been waiting at Perth Domestic Airport from as early as 8am, but only caught a fleeting glimpse of the 17-year-old star through a terminal window before he was whisked away in a silver van with heavily tinted windows at about 4.30pm.
Courtney Greaves, 14, raced home from school to get to the airport in time for Bieber’s arrival.
She said she wanted to see the star before going to his concert tomorrow night.
Kayah Boswood, 21, said she had been waiting since early today to see Bieber and took the day off work.
“I’m a pretty old ‘Belieber’,” Ms Boswood said.
Even before his arrival, Bieber fever had been spreading across Perth with more than 16,500 fans preparing for his first and only sellout concert at the Burswood Dome tomorrow night.
Those "Beliebers" who missed out on tickets have been cautioned about buying online, where some seats are selling for more than $300. The original ticket price was $97.80 for gold seats and $65 for silver.
"Unfortunately there have been some very sad cases on this tour where people thought they'd purchased legitimate tickets only to discover the seller has disappeared, or has provided them with fakes," a spokeswoman for concert promoter the Frontier Touring Company said.
More tickets could have been sold if a lounge area had been included in the Dome as it had for Usher's recent Burswood concert for 18,000 people.
But Frontier made the show entirely seated for safety of the young fans that have helped Bieber become a cyber and real world star with more than 1.5 billion YouTube views and 26 million Facebook fans.
The Frontier spokeswoman said the volume of calls, emails, Facebook messages and tweets from fans asking to meet Bieber, get his flight and hotel details, "or simply to say they love him" was higher than for other touring acts with a similar demographic.
Raised by his mother in the city of Stratford, Ontario, 17-year-old Bieber was discovered on YouTube in 2008 when he was just 13 after his now manager Scooter Braun stumbled across his videos.
He has become almost as well known for his floppy fringe, hoodies and boyish looks as his hit singles One Time, Baby, Somebody to Love and Never Say Never. He has two albums in the ARIA top 20 this week, with My Worlds at No. 7 after 49 weeks on the chart.Source URL: http://collectors45.blogspot.com/2011/05/bieber-touches-down-in-west.htmlVisit Teen Celebrity Gossip for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection
