The true magic key to open any door is a harness and backpack with networking tools and a lot of apologizing. I have talked my way backstage at a comical number of events and facilities by claiming to be the on-call networking tech here to fix the wifi. Admittedly that was almost always true - but nobody knew that because who the fuck in facilities actually knows how to communicate with the staff. Even when I was stopped just going “I’m super sorry, I need to get in there to waves tablet, can you please tell me who can let me in” literally has never not worked.

… I only ever abused this a couple of times to show off to people. Honestly barely worth it, being backstage is hands down the worst way you can experience a show and being front of house means you have to field endless questions from attendees and the staff will get sus if you’re not looking busy. But getting to wander around utility tunnels is always fun, and being up on the roof of some buildings can be wild.