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If you've ever watched a Wimbledon match, then you've surely seen the royals and other notables in the stands. So you may not know that hundreds of the best tickets are actually reserved for regular folks at low prices. That is, if they're willing to join what's called The Queue, a line that lasts for days. From Wimbledon, NPR's Lauren Frayer reports.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: We're passing through a giant sign that says, welcome to The Queue.
JAMES MENDELSSOHN: That's right.
FRAYER: Such a British.
MENDELSSOHN: It is. This is the quintessential British queue.
FRAYER: James Mendelssohn, chief steward at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, better known as Wimbledon, shows me around the grounds.
MENDELSSOHN: People to the right sleeping in tents.
FRAYER: So to the right here is the camping area?
MENDELSSOHN: Yeah. We wake them up at 5 o'clock in the morning.
FRAYER: Where thousands of people camp out overnight for tickets, including Sam Straub (ph), just off the plane from the Lone Star State.
SAM STRAUB: I left Texas at 7 p.m. last night. I landed here, and I came straight from the airport.
FRAYER: This is a pretty small tent here.
STRAUB: It's way smaller than I thought it was.
FRAYER: Wimbledon costs anywhere from about $25 for a grounds pass to tens of thousands for premium packages. But 500 of the very best center court seats are reserved each day of this two-week tournament for these campers to purchase, starting at about $100, plus hundreds more tickets for less on courts one, two, and three.
AURELEA MILLS: We saw Djokovic last time and got his signature.
FRAYER: You got an autograph?
A MILLS: Yeah.
FRAYER: Eleven-year-old twins Thomas and Aurelea Mills (ph) are here for a third year in a row with their mom, Pam Mills (ph).
THOMAS MILLS: My favorite part is just camping.
(SOUNDBITE OF TENT RUSTLING)
FRAYER: Campers get handed a queue card with a number. They pitch their tents and download an app with a guide to queue etiquette. Rule No. 1, do not leave your tent for longer than 30 minutes or it'll get taken down, tossed out, and you'll lose your spot in line. Stewards actually go around with a timer checking.
UNIDENTIFIED STEWARD: Hi. Anybody at home?
FRAYER: So you can't pitch your tent and then dash back home or to a hotel to sleep or even wait in line for the porta-potties too long. You have to stay with your tent in the queue for hours, sometimes days. But nobody here is twiddling their thumbs.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUITAR PLAYING)
CHARLES L STUBB: (Singing) La, la, la. La, la, la.
FRAYER: There are tennis-themed singalongs and mini tennis tournaments between the rows of tents here, people serving strawberries and cream to strangers in the queue. There's a guy dressed up as John McEnroe from the 1980s.
(CHEERING)
CLAIRE FINNEY: Strawberries and cream. We've had a little bit too much Prosecco.
(LAUGHTER)
STUBB: The Queue is vastly more important than the tournament. It's where the spirit of the whole thing resides. It's not with the corporate crowd. It's here. This is Wimbledon.
FRAYER: That's Charles L. Stubb (ph), whom you also heard playing the guitar, and his friend Claire Finney (ph) from Ireland. Next to them is a tennis-crazed teen from North Carolina who's rigged up a way to livestream ESPN footage from center court into his tent.
Wait, so you're streaming ESPN on a laptop.
While he queues for tickets to center court. As the sun sets, swifts and swallows soar and dive overhead. Campers bed down for the night, and more people keep pouring through that gate that says welcome to The Queue. Annabel Sanders (ph) and her friends are lugging the very bare essentials.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Alcohol.
ANNABEL SANDERS: Picnic rug.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.
SANDERS: Wine.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Jacket.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Prosecco.
SANDERS: Jumper. And that's pretty much it. With the British weather, you probably should bring an umbrella. But, you know, fingers crossed it stays dry.
(LAUGHTER)
FRAYER: If there's a lull far in the distance, you can faintly hear an occasional cheer go up from Center Court, where everyone here is hoping to be tomorrow.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News, at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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