FOILED AGAIN!

Hell and damnation! Two years running now that our participation in the Freedom Festival has been cancelled due to rain. Admittedly there was a tad bit more water last year, but sadly the turf was too soggy for us to strike up the band this year. The morning of the 19th, we were on site at 6 am looking at a sky roiling with black eminence. Usually for outdoor concerts, we attempt to rehearse on location to get used to the space as the acoustic is very challenging. With no sound reverberating and reflecting back to the musicians, it compounds ensemble difficulties, and it can strain the player with a tendency to overplay in a vain attempt to fill the field with sound. More importantly, it is the one and only opportunity for the sound engineer to set balances, and for our soloists to make sure they are comfortable with their mikes. Plus we had choreographed fireworks with two of our pieces in which I would be directing from a click track implanted in my ear. That means as I hear a click in my ear, I would direct the orchestra at a very controlled and pre-determined tempo. As a result, the fireworks would explode in synchronization at the precise moment intended in the music--pretty complicated stuff.

Well the morning’s weather made that all impossible. Apparently water and electrical equipment do not get along. We had two unsatisfactory options. If we were to proceed outdoors, the sound equipment (and there was a ton of it) would not be able to be set until after the larger storm looming in the late afternoon. In fact they might not get it set in time for the concert. If they did get it done in time, half of the concert would fall victim to ad hoc sound engineering as they would have no option but to figure it out on the fly. No telling what would happen with the fireworks and the explosions for 1812, as we would not have had a technical dry run. Finally the field was a muddy mess. In the morning it was a swamp, and was only going to get worse during the day, meaning that for any who showed up without a chair, would be in for a very wet picnic--indeed a redefinition of the phrase "standing room only." Our other option was to perform the concert indoors, on campus at Ballantyne auditorium. We seriously considered this, and could have made it work, but the concerns included the difficulty of directing traffic to a remote and unfamiliar location, and that the tiny seating capacity might not prove sufficient leaving more people unhappy. Plus, fireworks and canon fire that close and personal would be looked down upon by the fire department :)

It was with great reluctance that the terrific people at Freedom Fest decided to cancel the event. An agonizing decision, no doubt, and frustrating for so many that put such an effort into this event year after year. Let's hope that the 3rd time is a charm...

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