NMSOaked

Tonight, most of my family and I went to see the NMSO at Balloon Fiesta Park. It was a concert on the lawn, though technically it was a concert in the tent with the audience in chairs on the lawn. In and of itself, it had the promise of being an enjoyable night on the town, but in reality it turned into a memorable one, as well.

You see, as could easily be predicted since this was an outdoor event, it rained. Not a lot, but enough to make things difficult. Going in, we could see the rain falling on our destination, so at least we made some preparation. I brought a rain poncho and an emergency poncho, while everyone else brought umbrellas. As the wind kicked up and the temperature dropped, it turned out that my choice was more sound (and also born of east-coast experience, rather than Land of Enchantment casualness).

But it wasn’t just the audience being inconvenienced by the off-and-on light rain. The orchestra had to be moved farther inside the tent…water being bad for the varnish on $60,000 instruments. Unfortunately, the danger of water drops forced a compressed concert. There was the traditional July fare, but it seemed some of the overall oomph was missing. Still, it’s always nice to listen to Stars and Stripes Forever with fireworks.

So, although it was cool, and wet, and windy, I had a nice time of it (how could I not, as my family shared in much of it…which is almost always a good time for me).