A Toronto woman is thanking a group of strangers for giving her a free ticket to a Hozier concert, and now she’s reminding everyone that kindness is still the heart and soul of the city.
Liza Kanopatykaia tells Now Toronto that she spent months wanting to go to the Hozier concert at Rogers Stadium on Sept.10, but held off on purchasing a ticket due to money being tight and her preparing to start grad school this month.
Luckily, she says she was able to snag a last-minute ticket for the show, despite the seat not being the greatest.
“The ticket that I had initially was in the very top grandstands of the west side, you couldn’t really even see the screens or anything,” she said.
But still she had a positive attitude, and as she waited for the show to start, she began chatting with a group of women who sat behind her, instantly connecting and sharing laughs.
After chatting briefly, the girls asked her if she’d like to sit closer.
“I was like, ‘What do you mean? Like, hypothetically? As a concept?” she asked.
That’s when the girls pulled out one ticket, with a seat closer to the stage in the ninth row of the section, and offered it to Kanopatykaia.
The girls had received the ticket as a free upgrade, but since they were a larger group, the ticket was unable to accommodate all of them.
Kanopatykaia says she insisted on buying them a drink, but they refused anything in return, saying they were happy to do so because they love her energy.
“I was just really flabbergasted that people would just take a stranger and just give them an answer ticket for literally no reason,” she said. “And I think that it really speaks to the soul of Toronto.”
It made for an even more special experience for Kanopatykaia, who was now only about 20 feet away from Hozier when he walked to the B Stage during the concert.
Kanopatykaia has since posted about the interaction online and was able to reconnect with the women because of her post.
She says she has been inspired to keep that kindness going, and even made it a promise to herself and them.
“I promised them one day when I’m able to, I’d like to pass it forward, and kind of pay it forward to another stranger,” she said.
She says one of her biggest takeaways from the experience is the reminder that Toronto is and always has been a kind city.
“At times like this, you really remember that the soul of a city is not in what you can do for yourself, but in what you can do for others. And that’s something that I’ve always known, but this really reaffirmed it,” she said.
Now Kanopatykaia is reminding others to keep that in mind.
“We live in such a wonderful city, and I think that sometimes all of these positive experiences get overshadowed… I think that it’s really important to just remember that you can always choose to be kind, and you can always choose to be selfless,” she said.
