I've gotten up within a row or two of the front at any number of festival seating shows back in the day (do they even do that anymore?). There's a famous video of Springsteen getting mauled by three girls from Tempe, AZ in 1978 during Rosalita - I was about five feet from where all of that was going on. Here, check out just before the 7.00 mark. I've never found myself in the video but I was right there and talking to them after they got tossed back into the crowd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYHGh6lmSbo
I had to avoid getting ALL the way to the front during a Stones show in Boulder in 1981 because there were a bunch of Angels up there and I didn't want to be another victim, but I was about a row behind them.
The only show (other than club shows, of which there have been too many to count) where I just went and bought tickets and managed to get front row center was the Kinks, in about 1979 or 1980, in Tucson. I bought ten tickets and four of my best friends and I all brought dates and had one of the great nights in memory. That's the only time I had reserved seating front and center, but I've been really really close a number of times...
-Ray