It was the night of nights with the red carpet, rose bouquets and crowds waiting backstage (yes, I know I’m mixing my HSM songs, so sue me!) at the Sydney Premiere of High School Musical 3 on Monday night (11/10). Myself, Kylie, Dani, and Karen ventured forth to the Greater Union Cinema on George Street to catch all the action so click inside to read all the insanity of Team Ekka Dekka’s HSM adventure… 
    *Don’t forget to  keep checking the HSM3 News and Updates page for all HSM-related findings!

*Update: Photo & additional re-cap links are now inside!
*Update 2: Autograph and Article scan links now inside!

7:00am: Karen, Dani and Kylie rock up bright and early at Ellie’s hotel. Kylie had been up since 4:30am since she had to drive for one and a half hours from her home town, but that hadn’t dampened her enthusiasm!

7:15am: After a brisk walk up the road (filled with as many HSM song lines as we could possibly fit into one conversation), we arrived at the cinema with the distinction of being the first fans there! Grabbing some breakfast from HJ’s (the Aussie Burger King), we set up with laptop and phones directly opposite where the roadies were beginning to set-up the barricades. A few more people trickle in, and we even meet a girl who knew us from the blog ( Thank you Kenzie for making us feel all famous and important ) The carpet is rolled out a little and Karen steps on it (illegally) for a few pictures.

9:00am: After moving to the opposite side of the red carpet (we sweet-talked some of the roadies about where the best position to be in was), we start intently on writing a collab fanfic (to be posted soon) as more barricades go up, and the red carpet is rolled out. More people rock up, and we start to feel glad that our decision to turn up super early is paying off.

10:00am: Kylie and Ellie go for a walk to buy a notebook for Kylie to collect autographs and in the process, pounce on a copy of ‘The Daily Telegraph’ with a large pic of Zac, Vanessa and Ashley under the drool-worthy title of “Zac Suns His Guns”. Ellie is annoyed that she walked right past that water taxi stand around the time they were there but missed seeing them… and starts thinking that hopefully it wasn’t an omen of what was to come!

12:00pm: By now, we’ve moved to sit against the barrier, spreading out our stuff to reserve our prime position. The laptop stops working and despite many efforts to revive it, our internet connection is lost. Lunch comes and goes and we make friends with a mother who let her three kids have the day off of school to come, armed with hand-made posters. Kylie, taking the intiative, whips up our own mini-poster complete with Zac and Vanessa stick figures (Stick!Zac even had mini-abs and guns drawn on!)

2:00pm: Ellie’s phone dies just as the red carpet set-up takes its final shape but its Super!Mum to the rescue. Her mum stops by, takes the phone (and laptop) back to the hotel room to be charged, buys a large red piece of cardboard for Kylie to make a giant poster AND brings us some Krispy Kreme donuts later on…three cheers for Cheryl!

3:00pm: Dani, Kylie and Karen change into their red and white outfits (Ellie already in hers) and return to our position looking glam and fabulous! Dani does suffer a slight wardrobe mulfunction as the strap on her top breaks, but soon its fixed and all is well again.

4:30pm: A mock-basketball court is now set-up at the end of the carpet, and media outlets start to arrive, setting up in a line directly opposite us. The ever-increasing crush of people means that we now have to stand against the barrier. The excitement builds as we realise just how good our vantage point actually is. The roadies place some HSM 3 posters along the barricade in front of us and we wonder if we can successfully distract one long enough to steal ourselves a couple…

5:45pm: East High Cheerleader dancers entertain the crowd as the soundtrack is cranked up and we sing our little hearts out. News cameras pan across for about half an hour and we spend that long screaming our lungs out (to great effect, since we apparently made the news on all three major Australian TV stations!). We were interviewed briefly by one station, but didn’t make the cut according to our family members (who we had watching/taping for us)

Red and white pom poms are thrown to all of the fans and the noise bubbles up throughout the crowd.  Someone carries an empty dog carrier past us and we wonder whether Manly made the trip across the Pacific (he didn’t, so we still live in wonder as to what the cage was for…)

6:00pm: THEY ARRIVE!! Kenny shows up first to plenty of screams, beaming at the crowd in his charcoal suit and red tie. Karen manages to score a kiss on the cheek from him, and we all get his autograph and photo to our delight. Around him, guests flow down the carpet including some Aussie celebs like comedian Amanda Keller, singers Axel Whitehead and Natalie Bassingsthwaite and actor Jai Lagaia.

The screams get louder and we catch our first glimpses of Zac and Vanessa. Zac is first on the carpet, looking hot and suave as always in his black suit with skinny tie. We are treated to a few hair flips (much to our absolute enjoyment!) and take some awesome photos as he is interviewed directly opposite us. The screams are deafening but Karen, using her noggin, speaks to the premiere MC Sami Lukis about how far we travelled to get there and she makes sure Zac heads over our way (Thank you Sami!). It’s slighly heartbreaking for Dani though, as in the all the pushing and shoving, she misses getting Zac’s autograph.

Vanessa is next on the carpet, looking absolutely gorgeous in a long, off-white gown with ruffle detailing and silver edging and her hair piled up on her head. Her shoes were also drool-worthy (we seriously wanted to steal them, they were that pretty!). After getting her autograph (she is so tiny, especially compared to 6″2 Kylie!) we spend the next few minutes hyper-ventilating as Sami interviews her right. in. front. of. us! She was seriously less than a foot away and Kylie fought down the urge to tap her on the back, only for fear of being kicked out.

Ashley is the last on the carpet, looking resplendent in a short, white lace mini and silver strappy shoes that we also coveted. We manage to score her autograph too (four for four for most of us, yay!) and we get to hear her beautiful laugh as Karen tells her that ‘Sharpay will live forever!”

As they move down the carpet, we also manage to get Bindi Irwin’s autograph who was there with her mum Terri and little brother Bob. She is an absolute sweetheart and has the cutest smile we have ever seen!

7:00pm: As the stars have moved on, we mill around for a little bit when a reporter from radio station Nova comes up to us, asking us a few questions. Apparently our loud singing and screaming antics paid off! After she leaves, another reporter from radio station Mix comes up to us and asks for an interview too, as she reckons we were ‘the most dedicated fans there.’ We spend a long time talking to her about our travels, how we met and why we love HSM. It was the absolute perfect way to cap off our day and if you live in Sydney, listen to the Merrick and Rosso show on Nova tomorrow, cause you just might hear us!

So after laughter, tears and more excitement than you can poke a stick at, our adventure came to an end. For Ellie, Dani and Karen, it was more than worth the cost of the airfare over to Sydney and something that all four of us will remember forever.

Team Ekka Dekka, signing off.

For more photos visit:

• ZA Angels Image Gallery *All photos now added
• Kylie’s photo album
• Click here to read Kylie’s re-cap *ZA forum registration is quick and easy
• Zac, Vanessa, Ashley and Kenny’s autographs
• Articles about the premiere *More articles to come over the next week

ALL Photos taken by Kylie/Ellie

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 3:41 am and is filed under Event, HSM, Open Forum, Photos, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.