Bonnie says...

We returned to Riverbend on Thursday and Saturday evenings. By then, the weather had cooled a few degrees and being outside was much more comfortable.

Thursday, we had an especially hard time deciding between two stages near sunset. We liked the Andean-sounding Mystic Warriors at the stage by the Hunter Museum. Partway into their set, we wound our way down the switchback sidewalk to the small stage tucked under one of the bridges. We thought we would like the folksy female singer there, but neither of us found her voice well suited to her music. We wound our way back up to Mystic Warriors just in time to catch the last of their set. So far, I have bought one CD at each Riverbend festival I've attended. Last year, we got That One Guy. This year, we got Mystic Warriors.

Of course, the final Saturday evening is the highlight of the festival. We couldn't miss that.

For some reason, we especially like the stages that involve going up a hill, either on the way there or on the way back. Our favorite sunset show that evening was Gaelic Storm, at the stage by the museum. Although not all the band members are Irish, the flavor of the music is very Irish. The leader got as close to bawdy as any performer can at Riverbend without losing the audience. Chattanooga sets up Riverbend as a family-friendly festival. It doesn't tolerate as much drunkenness or anywhere near as much bad behavior as you might expect at most music festivals. Vicky said well, the Irish are such charmers, they can get away with it... and she was right.

The space right in front of the stage was empty of chairs, and the band encouraged people to dance there. First there were about seven people up there, dancing. Then there were twelve, then twenty... I lost count around thirty, probably because that's when Vicky decided she wanted to be at the dance floor. Not in a single decision, mind you. First she just wanted a better location, so we went around most of the crowd and halfway up the sidewalk toward the stage. After a few minutes there, we went to the sidewalk even with the back of the dance area and stepped into the dancing crowd. Since Vicky needed to hold onto me for balance while she was dancing, that meant I had to pretend to dance, too. I don't dance. I shudder to think how I must have looked. But the heat and exertion ensured that we were not out there long.

Should I mention running into someone from my work the next day at IHOP? Should I mention that *he* mentioned seeing me in the dance area at the Gaelic Storm performance? The things Vicky gets me into�
Anyway, it was great fun.

We knew better than to wander around too much after that set finished. For a good view of the fireworks, staking out a good spot well ahead of time is best. That is much easier now that the riverfront renovations are finished. The "bleachers" are nicely positioned between the main stage (a 100 foot covered barge docked at the river's edge) and the bridge that serves as the launch platform for fireworks. The "bleachers" are actually narrow terraces of concrete and grass. People can set up a beach chair on the grassy portion of a terrace and other people can walk along the row on the comfortably wide concrete edge in front of the grass. We walked directly to a concrete platform at the top of all the terraces, near the bridge. We talked and listened to bits of Pat Benatar's performance that sometimes wafted over from the main stage.

This was the 25th Riverbend festival. The newspaper hinted beforehand that something new was being added to the fireworks show. Vicky set up my digital camera on her tripod in hopes of capturing some of it. Our location was so good, she was able to wait and watch and shoot photos with an unobstructed view while sitting the entire time.

The show is always spectacular. I've seen fireworks with the Colorado Springs symphony at Memorial Park, with the Boston Pops on the 4th of July, over Boston harbor at the New Year, at the Washington DC reflecting pool for Independence Day... No fireworks show I have seen anywhere else rivals Riverbend. But not just the fireworks themselves are a step above. The audience is, too. This festival and this show are Chattanooga's pride and joy. The audience counts down aloud to the first crackle from the bridge, oohs and ahs, applauds enthusiastically at the show's trademark "waterfall" (a sheet of sparks raining over the bridge into the river for several minutes)--in short, *participates* in the show by unabashedly expressing its appreciation for each wonder in the sky. This year's new trick was a portion of the fireworks erupting from the river itself instead of from the bridge.

Afterward, we did not try to go to IHOP this year. We just went home, ate a little snack, took a shower and went to bed. But of course, we aren't done with Riverbend until we have some post-festival hash browns. We went to IHOP for breakfast after we got up the next day.