How to attend a red carpet event in Los Angeles

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When you have just arrived from your awesome Los Angeles trip usually the most common question that you get asked back at home is “Did you get to see any Hollywood celebrities?!?!?”

And of course, you should have as Los Angeles is THE HOT SPOT for all the actors, musicians, reality stars, movie producers.

Well, basically everybody that you see on TV, in a red carpet event, follow on YouTube, Instagram or anywhere else.

Surely not everyone is into celebrities but let’s be real here – who wouldn’t feel even a bit excited by seeing a character from their favorite movie on the street? We all would.

So there are a couple of ways how to meet a celebrity you love the most. One, and the most effective is to attend a red carpet event in Los Angeles.

But how to do that if you don’t have an actual invitation to the event?

There is an art to it, that I’m going to reveal to you right now. I’ll tell you how we attended the red carpet of a world premiere of the movie “Doctor Strange” in Los Angeles to see all the movie stars.

An insider tip: Click here to check out a hostel with their windows overlooking this exact spot where most red carpet events take place! You could be comfortably looking at this all through the window of your room if you stay there during your LA visit.

This is our experience of attending a red carpet event in 4 simple steps and how you can do it too. Plus other cool and effective ways for celebrity spotting in Los Angeles.

STEP 1: Find out when the red carpet event will take place

This is actually as simple as googling. When I was searching for any red carpet events that take place in Los Angeles on our travel dates, the best source I found was this website, listing all the upcoming movie premieres and celebrities about to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Another easy way is to keep track of the big award shows like Oscars, Grammys, and others. These are actually the ultimate way where to meet hundreds of celebs.

Luckily there was one event scheduled for the week when we would be in LA – the world premiere of movie Doctor Strange taking place at the most popular red carpet event spot – Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Read also: The best hotel where to stay near Walk of Fame in Hollywood for comfortable celebrity spotting

I checked IMDB to see is it worth going there just to find out that such celebs as Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, and Mads Mikkelsen would be there.

Which girl wouldn’t wanna see a “Mean Girl” Regina George in real life and which guy would miss a chance to see Hannibal? We were up for a treat!

STEP 2: Know when to arrive at the red carpet event

The event listings on the internet will usually indicate an approximate start and the location of the event.

However, you can never be sure what time exactly all the juicy things will happen as the arrival of stars and other premiere guests take for about 2 hours.
Also if you want to make sure to get a decent spot from where you will be able to see all the stars, then it’s best to arrive a few hours advance of the official time.

There’s usually a special fan zone available for the first people who arrive. It means that you have to be in line early enough to be among the first 100 or 200 people who will be allowed in the special zone.

This zone offers a good view of the area where stars will be arriving. A possibility to touch them and get your something signed sounds very appealing to many.

If you are up for this, then you should arrive at about 6 hours in advance. It’s a long wait but also it’s an exciting experience.

The feeling of being part of such an event and seeing all the excited people around is definitely something you MUST experience in LA. It really allows you to feel it’s cool and fancy taste.

Click here to check out a hostel with their windows overlooking this exact spot where most red carpet events take place! You could be comfortably looking at this all through the window of your room if you stay there during your LA visit.

Also if you work in Media, make sure to check out Media accreditation options. There’s always a chance to get inside the event as a photographer or reporter.

Not a bad way how to combine work with fun, isn’t it?

STEP 3: Arrive early and get the best spots & our experience with that

The movie premiere was about to start at around 6 pm. So we had decided to organize our day around the Walk of Fame area just to be sure that we don’t miss anything since we didn’t know what to expect.

The movie premiere was to happen in Grauman’s Chinese Theater on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This famous LA wonder is sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street with stars on them dedicated to famous singers, actors, even fictional characters and many more from the entertainment industry.

That day the whole block in front of the Chinese Theater was blocked and covered with red carpet for the arrival of movie stars.

We went to check out the location of the red carpet event around 13:00 that day.

Seeing the huge red carpet covered street was unreal. It felt pretty exciting to be in the place that soon will be broadcasted all over the Internet and TV.

I’m sure fans of the movie would go all crazy to see this live.

On the side of the street, we saw about 50 people lining up and waiting for their chance to get into the fan zone.

Since the fenced area was huge and would fit many people we decided that we won’t wait in line. We’d just come back one hour before the beginning and try to find a nice spot on any of the sidewalks.

It was just before 5 when we were back in the place. It was already pretty packed with people.

There was so much more buzz going on inside the fenced area. Journalists, photographers, and security were gathering to prepare for the start of the event.

This preparation ended up going on for 2 more hours before the first guests of the premiere started to arrive.

The wait time passed very quickly though by watching all kinds of interesting people around us. Probably those who waited 9 hours wouldn’t say the same though.

The thing I was amazed about in LA but especially on the Walk of Fame is how extraordinary are the people everywhere around.

We were passed by guys with a long bright green manicure. There was a girl with a real snake around her body, people dressed as characters from Suicide Squad. And it’s all normal there.

You usually don’t see that in Europe so we enjoyed every minute of unbelievable diversity around us.

STEP 4: Watch all your favorite celebrities to arrive and enjoy it!

Finally, we noticed that huge black cars start to line up at the far end of the red carpet and people in the fan zone started to cheer.

Our excitement suddenly grew to about 500%. Then we started to see the first movie stars, directors, and other important people arriving.

They all went straight to pose in front of the bunch of photographers.

We were lucky to be standing next to a paparazzi guy. He somehow always managed to spot the most famous people from very far away.

Also, he always got the first shots of them getting out of their cars. So thanks to him we knew when to pay more attention to see the good stuff.

We watched all the actors that we know to arrive. It took almost 4 hours. We left the red carpet event with such an awesome feeling to just have experienced something so LA.

Other effective ways how to meet celebrities in LA

In real life, the chances that you will meet your favorite celebrity just walking down the street are pretty small.

Celebs don’t walk anywhere, nobody actually does in LA. People just drive places so you mostly don’t see them.

You have to be very lucky to accidentally have lunch at the same restaurant as your idol or go to the same coffee shop or gym.

So that you wouldn’t have to wander around endlessly through the streets of Beverly Hills mansions or wait outside the celebrities favorite restaurants which only allows reservations for “special guests”, seeing a red carpet of a movie premiere, an award show or a star receiving event on the Walk Of Fame in Hollywood are all good options.

In addition to those, celebrity spotting in Los Angeles works well through different tours, that can get you close to your favorite celebs. Any of these options below are awesome ways how to make that happen!

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Or check out these for some cool ideas what to do in Los Angeles.

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Another good idea of how to get to see your favorite celebrities is to check out talk show taping.

For example The Ellen Show or Jimmy Kimmel. The Jimmy Kimmel taping actually takes place right on the Walk of Fame across the street from the Chinese Theater. So you often get to see some things happening out on the street outside the studio.

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