A GULLIBLE festival-goer has gone viral – after believing he had met a top celebrity at T in the Park.
Ryan Johnston uploaded a photograph on Instagram earlier this week showing him posing with One Direction’s Niall Horan.
He tagged the superstar in the snap and said he was “still in shock” at meeting the 22-year-old Irishman.
But he has been left red-faced after it was revealed the star was in fact a total stranger who simply looked like the blond heartthrob.
And now he has gone viral online, with people teasing him for the mistake.
The photograph, originally uploaded to Ryan’s Instagram, shows him posing with his sunglasses on next to the lookalike, who is wearing a white tshirt and denim jacket.
Ryan, from Elgin, Moray, captioned it: “Still in shock that I bumped into you mate, a true gent! Hope you enjoyed your very first TITP.”
He even tagged the real Niall Horan in the photograph – proving how much he believed he had met the real deal.
The picture has since been shared widely on Facebook, with the stranger even revealing himself as Liam Fergusson from Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire.
Ryan commented on the snap, which has been shared 465 times in the space of a day, writing: “I’ll never live this down.”
Liam replied: “Cheers anyway mate, lovely to meet you.”
The photo has attracted hundreds of comments from amused Scots, who said they couldn’t stop laughing at the mistake.
Gary McKinnon said: “This has made my day to be fair, class lads.”
Matthew Walker wrote: “I’m genuinely gonna s*e myself laughing in a minute.”
Kirsty Mcculloch, a friend of Liam’s, added: “Always told you someone would mistake you for the real Niall, Liam.”
Ryan, who lists his profession online as an apprentice designer, has even changed his Instagram biography to: “The idiot that thought he met Niall Horan at TITP.”
Niall, who rose to global fame with fellow One Direction bandmates in 2010, is currently believed to be in London – roughly 450 miles away.
Two days ago, he was pictured on a date with Belgian student Celine Helene as the pair left Drama nightclub on Hertford Street in Mayfair.
Ryan, 21, later explained: “It was a last minute decision on Friday night to go on Saturday as I was given a free ticket.
“I was on the drink heavily as soon as we got on the bus. It would have been about 6ish when we left the slam tent to go and get some more booze that we ran into him.
“I can’t really remember it but I was told by my friend that I was in shock and rushed over to him, hugging him and saying that I couldn’t believe he was at T.”
He added: “All I can remember is getting a photo with him and saying thanks, but my friend has since told me that he had a Glaswegian accent.
“As soon as I actually posted the pic I was getting floods of messages – friends telling me I’m an idiot etc.
“That’s when it clicked and I realised how much of a fool I had been. It could only happen to me.”
When asked if he was a One Direction fan, he replied: “I wouldn’t say I am, no, but my little sisters are so that has probably given me subconsciously more knowledge than average.”
Liam, 19, has since revealed that he is in a One Direction tribute band and even appeared on a TV show about lookalikes.
He said: “I wasn’t at T in the Park pretending to be him but I had people coming up asking for a photo.
“It happens all the time when I am on a night out. I’m in a tribute band and do lookalike work, and was on a Channel 4 reality show about lookalikes.
“A couple of years ago I was at a One Direction concert with my friend who looks like Harry, and we had to have our own bouncer to walk us around since so many people thought we were the real ones.
“At another concert at the Hydro the security told us to go and sit in our seats straight away as they remembered us from the year before.”
