July 31, 2011

#62 Tanglewood Music Festival

Tanglewood Music Festival

When I originally went through the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die, I crossed off all the shows, festivals, gatherings, etc. I don't really like crowds, and I especially don't like the pressure to vacation at a specific place at a specific time. Again, while reviewing the book while planning this trip I decided to just look up Tanglewood and see, I'd had such luck with Brimfield. I discovered that instead of few days of festival, Tanglewood runs all summer long.

Tanglewood is the summer home of the uber-famous Boston Symphony Orchestra, and on the night I went the Emerson String Quartet was scheduled to play. They've won nine Grammy Awards over three decades and are world-renowned performers. I bought lawn tickets, bought a blanket (a $5 blanket I discarded immediately thereafter - homage to the $5 shoes, Jaiden!) and enjoyed a evening of classical music by Haydn, Bartok, and Schubert. I thought lawn tickets would mean we sat outside the venue and listened to the performance. Instead they open these huge doors that face a gently sloping hill and the lawn-dwellers spread out blankets, chair, and picnics. It was really, especially lovely.
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Things I would do differently:
Bring a picnic: I had originally planned to buy a "to go" boxed dinner from the restaurant, but there were some unexpected developments that meant I didn't order in the 72 hour notice for the dinner. I assumed the restaurant would be open, and could just get there early and eat, but they close at 6. Snacks just didn't quite cut it.

Bring bug repellent: There were a lot of bugs around after dark and I got eaten alive. Like all the way up and down both legs.