Grant Park Music Festival — Chicago, Illinois

We walked back to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion for the free concert. The show was scheduled to begin in about 10 minutes when we got there. The chairs in the front and the grass area under the speakers were jammed, but between these two areas was a set of concrete steps. A few people were sitting there, but there were a lot of gaps, so we walked down and found places. (The steps weren’t terribly comfortable, but the hour and a half we sat there wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be.)

The first piece was Symphony No. 8 in F major. Op. 93 by Beethoven. After a couple minutes, I left my wife there and walked over near the Bean to buy a couple of Sprites — for $3.00 each.

When that long song was done, a piano was wheeled out onto the stage and the even longer Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83, by Brahms began with Marc-Andre Hamelin on the piano. My wife thoroughly enjoyed the entire show. I enjoyed Beethoven more than Brahms, but I had fun watching people. The stairs filled up as the concert went on, but we never felt squished.

 I don’t think I would have been thrilled to go to Chicago just to sit on concrete steps and hear a classical music concert. Half the fun, for me, was the fact that we just happened upon it.

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