IT looks like people are stealing sneakers.
Boxes of running shoes are piled high and people are lifting them with no sense of shame whatsoever. I want to alert the appropriate authorities but I can't work out who that would be.
Oh, but wait. This isn't theft, I realise, this is swag. These trainers - Asics, £90 - are free. You can wander up, ask for your size and wander off. As a lady whose idea of excitement is a good book and a pot of tea, this whole MTV carry-on is all well beyond my ken.
"Quick," says the PR executive, "They're giving out jewellery over here." They're giving out jewellery, Fake Bake products, Patron Silver tequila, Organic Pharmacy facials, massages and Essence cosmetics. Welcome to the world of celebrity.
Backstage, the stars are in for a treat. Host Nicki Minaj, when she takes up residence in her dressing room, will find tables piled high with stuff - limited-edition whisky, champagne.
Her dressing table displays a diamonte skull, and then there's her MTV EMA artist case. It's a Samsonite holding a cornucopia of luxury: clothes, shoes and beauty products.
When I was there, with roughly 36 hours to go, both the Hydro and its neighbour, the SECC, were buzzing. For the 20th anniversary of the awards the set is going to be the biggest in MTV EMA history with a time travel theme. The red carpet is in the process of being installed. It's an indoor affair and will accommodate 700 fans as well as press (around 200 international journalists).
The artists will be in dressing rooms in the SECC. We're allowed a tour of the artists' dining area, decorated in black and gold with leather couches and side tables resting on the shoulders of enormous plastic pigs.
Between the restaurant and the dressing rooms is the treatment area where the jetlagged artists can get treatments and advice.
Fake Bake is offering tans behind what looks like a precariously flimsy curtain. This level of interest and service must become very easy to be accustomed to.
It's exciting to be offered a free pair of sneakers because I'm thrifty. But I wonder how much joy comes from so much glitzy gifting when you have the pay packet to buy anything on a whim.
I'm sure no such thoughts will cross the mind of any of the artists tonight. Just the music and the adoration.
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