Celtic Woman

After 11 years I finally got myself and my girls to the outdoor theatre. "Where the arts come out to play." I've always wanted to go there and all 3 of us like the music of "Celtic Woman". Perfect.

We didn't know how early to go, but we packed food and my camelpak with a little bottle of wine inside the ice water pouch. Alcohol is permitted. Parking was free and we hiked up the hill. It was a warm summer evening and we were one of the first to arrive. The others arriving looked like they'd done this many times. They planted their coolers and packs by the gates. So we did the same.

The late afternoon sun created high contrast between the dark green pines and the white tent. I pulled out my paints and painted a little sketch, writing in colors since I thought I would not finish. We waited by the gates for about an hour. I had a travel pad of watercolor paper and a tiny paint set with one brush. I used a few drops of water from the camelpak and mixed colors in the pan lid.

The gates opened 90 minutes before the show and we hustled along with the veterans down the hill to get a prime seat on the grass, spread out our blankets and pulled out our food.

DD the elder had brought a book of Mad Libs. Each page has a story with blanks. She asks for a noun, a verb, a name of someone in the group, an adjective. When the blanks are filled she reads the story and it comes out non-sense. We laugh at the funny ones.

My sandwich wasn't that good, but I didn't really care what I ate. They had bought 3 pounds of macaroni salad, yeah, I'd say that was a bit more than we needed! We ate about 1/10th of it. She bought chicken, too. It was a happy place to be, on the lawn, looking around at all the other picnickers. What a great family outing.

It was still light when the show began.

They come out. We cheer. They sing. Their voices are high and clear and feminine and they are in beautiful dresses. We have 2 sets of binoculars and they all look beautiful. The backgroud visuals are waves on a sea. They sing of love and of Ireland. Some in English, some in fairy language. The girl with the violin IS a fairy, I'm sure of it. She is barefooted and she dances around flinging her long blong hair as she plays. Her skirt is like a fairy's skirt. Her ankle is wrapped. Their voices blend. There are 8 or 10 back-up singers, both guys and girls, and they are dressed in black. We have heard many of the songs before. We have seen this show on PBS and my youngest has the CD.

At intermission, I roll over, the pressure on the tailbone gets to you sitting on a slope. When they begin again it is dark and their visuals change to moon and stars. I love the dress that is deep blue with red-orange trim at the top and bottom. They each dress in different colors.

I love the flute, and the flute player has a rack with about 6 different flutes in it and he changes them out and also plays bagpipes and mandolin. The 2 drummers use drumsticks that I have not seen before, but I cannot remember the last concert I went to so what do I know? The two drummers have one piece they play with a drum in one hand that looks a little like a tamborine, and some sort of sticks in the other and they walk around taking turns playing with the fairy and her bass violin.

It has cooled off and people are covering up. I have on 2 long sleeved layers so I'm not cold but we put one blanket under us and cover up with another.

They end with You Lift Me Up So I Can Climb on Mountains and we all stand up for them.

We would do this again.