Andre from the Wet Seats

A friend of mine is a devoted fan of Andre Rieu. Last year, when she was looking for a friend to go to the concert with, I said okay to buying the $385 ticket because I knew how much this meant to her and couldn't let her go by herself.

Better be good seats, I said.

Well my friend employed her usual tenacity of purpose with the powers.that.be at Ovation to ensure that we did indeed have good seats. Row M to be exact. How fitting.

It has been raining on and off in Sydney for the last week and on Saturday morning it was looking dodgy for an open-air stadium concert. Then my friend texted me:

Radio said no rain pm, thank God.

Despite these assurances I donned my boots, wore long sleeves and packed two rain ponchos.

[the first big downpour]

Good thing I did. The rain held off until after we had checked out our seats and then it came down with a vengeance. There was talk of the concert being postponed. But we took our seats, dressed in our rain ponchos, for a prompt 8pm start. The rain continued for 15 or so minutes and then stopped.

[filing in for the start, my friend assuring me that her lovely suede shoes had been waterproofed...]

The set for this concert was amazing. It was a replica of Schonbrun Palace in Vienna and was set up at the Olympic stadium lengthwise with seating for 30,000 people in front. There was room for the orchestra, two ice rinks and a replica Viennese ballroom. Next to the set were two operational fountains. Cameras were encouraged and security staff were taking photos of groups.

[the set and views from our seats]

This event is a celebration of popular classics in a concert environment. High Brow music snobs would be horrified. And, despite my own reservations, I really enjoyed the whole thing. We heard beautifully played music, watched ice-skaters, saw the Viennese Debutantes perform waltzes, saw a small ballet, listened to fabulous soprano and tenor voices and were entertained by a mass bagpipe extravaganza. Couples waltzed in the aisles. Certainly a bit different from the restraint of the Opera House.

[view from the 'mosh pit']

My friend told me that for the last 20 minutes it is de rigeur to rush down to the front and generally ogle Andre and his orchestra. So we did. It was a mosh pit for oldies in rain ponchos, and us. At that point it started to pour with rain again but the crowd didn't care at all.

As we were leaving we overheard one man say he will never go to an outdoor concert again. Bah Humbug we said, if a concert is worth going to it's worth going to in the rain.