I drove 3 hours at the crack of dawn on a workday to see Charli XCX for the third time in 4 months. It was worth it.

My first time seeing Charli perform this year was at the Brooklyn Paramount on June 11, four days after the release of “Brat.”

Fans subscribed to the artist’s text chain had received a message on March 24 reading, “i know u hate when i send you my tiktoks… tomorrow’s not going to be a tiktok :).” Sure enough, the next day at 11:01 a.m., another text was sent — this time, a link to the ticketing platform dice.fm.

The tickets sold out within 15 minutes; I thankfully got mine in nine.

A few months later, there I was. The people surrounding me, I knew, were Charli’s real fans, the ones who already knew all the lyrics, who’d already bought their “Brat” green merch. These were the fans who always knew Charli would one day take over the dance-pop world and were thrilled to go along for the yearslong ride.

Above me, Julia Fox and Lorde were dancing, and around me, thousands of people were following suit. If anything, it felt more like a celebration than a concert.

The Brooklyn Paramount is a relatively small venue — the theater has a 2,700-person capacity — and the intimate show was the perfect introduction to experiencing the album live. Each subsequent show was a very different, though equally thrilling, experience.

Despite the last-minute scramble for tickets, the “Sweat” tour’s electric atmosphere made every moment worth it.

Next, I went to the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia for Charli XCX and Troye Sivan‘s co-headlined “Sweat” tour.

At first, I wasn’t able to get tickets to the “Sweat” tour because they sold out quickly. I thought I would be able to let it go, given that tickets that retailed for $79.50 without fees were now selling for upward of $300, and I had already gotten to see “Brat” live once. But deep down, I knew I couldn’t miss out on this opportunity.

After realizing how much cheaper it would be to see the show anywhere but in New York, I snagged tickets to the Wells Fargo show in Philly for $160, half the price that I would have paid a reseller for similar seats at Madison Square Garden. After clocking out at 5 p.m., I made the drive straight from work to an 8:30 p.m. show.

Thankfully, the rush-hour traffic didn’t derail my plans, and neither did the quick pit stop to change outfits in a random Wendy’s bathroom en route.

Charli XCX’s set at Storm King on October 10, a surprise album release celebration for her remix record “Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat,” changed the game.

The event was thoughtful and surprisingly intimate for such a spacious outdoor venue, with less than 1,000 fans in attendance. (Attendees had to secure their spot by signing up for an RSVP list; Business Insider was able to attend the event as press.)

Special shirts reading “art” on the front and “Charli XCX at Storm King” on the back in the signature “Brat” font were handed out to fans. The beverage company Vitamin Water had stations set up offering drinks. Trucks from local vendors were providing food and alcoholic beverages, some of which were “Brat”-themed. And it was all free.

A little past the food and drinks stood a 30-foot by 30-foot replica of a halfway-open gatefold cover of her new remix album, set to be released the next day — and nestled between the back fold of the vinyl was a DJ booth.

Soon enough, Charli arrived, stepping out of a black Cadillac Escalade in a fur-trimmed coat and baggy light-wash jeans. She walked over to the DJ booth, passing by hundreds of screaming fans, and played some songs from her new remix album straight off of her iPhone. She made time to speak to the crowd a bit, even though she said she hadn’t planned on it, and then left right back into the Escalade— on to her next show for the “Sweat” tour in Denver the following day.

In all, she was probably there for about an hour, but she made the most of it.

Charli worked the crowd, going back and forth from behind the “Brat” green booth, to on top of it. She seemed eager to get as close to her fans as possible (which wasn’t too difficult, given there was surprisingly no barricade or security set up).

Everyone was pressed up against each other, and Charli was dancing with the crowd like we were all just friends at a bar. I had never experienced anything like it.

But the show didn’t end when Charli left. Fans, journalists, and influencers alike stayed and danced as the album played on a loop until Storm King employees finally told everyone it was time to go at 6:30 p.m.

I didn’t want to leave. Looking around at the red and orange foliage, leaving Storm King felt like saying goodbye to something bigger: “Brat” summer itself.

But Charli XCX’s Storm King show was the perfect farewell to “Brat” summer, and the best possible welcome to “Brat” autumn: a new, but still familiar, era for an artist who’s proven she knows how to market herself (and keep the hype going long past the mini-skirt and sunglasses-inside weather).

I’m already excited to see what Charli has in store for the next show I go to. (Hopefully not in the middle of another workday.)