Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock
Tuesday, July 5, 2005: For a few weeks, newspaper house ads and broadcast public service announcements have proclaimed that the city of Fayetteville would host a Fourth of July celebration at Baum Stadium of the University of Arkansas. It would succeed the ones held for years at the local mall. The show would have three bands, at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 then the fireworks about 9:30.
I was keen because the last band, thus apparent headliner, was to be the Arkansas Winds, for which I play valve trombone when my work schedule permits (it hasn’t for nearly a year). Usually, the community concert band opens for combos at such holiday gigs; here the pop acts came first.
My wife and I had one decision: lawn chairs or blankets? The answer was neither. The show was to be at the baseball field, which has seats with arms rather than bleachers. Parking would be a piece of cake, too. The UA is expert at game parking. (The Northwest Arkansas Times noted that leaving the mall after the fireworks used to take 2.5 hours.)
What an evening it was last Monday, much cooler than most Fourths and the sky was nearly clear. Parking seemed ample.
We entered the stadium and found about a thousand people seated. We could hear Oreo Blue but where was this cover band? We asked a vested official, and he said they’re outside the stadium, around the corner.
There the rockers were, with just a hundred or so listeners — on lawn chairs and blankets. The folks in the stadium obviously brought no chairs (or coolers, which are banned in there, forcing folks to buy concessions).
The vested official had said Athletics didn’t want the musicians to damage the field. I asked a trumpeter buddy. He said the Winds plays on the field for a commencement ceremony almost every May, and there’s often a few games left.
So what did the live-music fans do? Nearly all left for the stands before the “headline” act, my pals, started, lugging their seats. My wife and I, and maybe 20 others stayed to watch the performance of the “Stars and Stripes Forever” finale then “El Capitan” as encore then went inside for optimal fireworks viewing and its too-familiar, canned patriotic soundtrack: a choir, Lee Greenwood, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, John Wayne. We stood at the back of the bleachers.
From 6:30 to 9:45 those who parked themselves in the bleachers heard what they may well have thought to be recorded music, even though it was live, just outside.
It took us a good hour to get home; the UA didn’t execute its usual supervised traffic patterns. Some police were directing traffic, but not the full plan.
What’s a commenter to say? Write this up as I have, a lay person who doesn’t quite understand and makes a lot of reasonable, if sarcastic, guesses to explain it. I could phone up and down City Hall, then UA’s University Relations, and learn the rationale and explain it here. Then mock it heartily.
A blogger likely would just spout off as I have, but some would have made even a couple of calls before posting.
A columnist might well report this up for a half-day then write what he learns and opine. Yet some good columnists see themselves as extensions of readers not super-reporters and just would record their perceptions and assumptions with little research.
As a blogger, I have no trouble just writing this up as is. If this was a column, at this point in my career, I’d make a bunch of calls and “ask a bunch of questions.” It’d make for a stronger piece.
Meanwhile, I can hope to remember that next year we should: See the Arkansas Winds when they play a regular concert some other night (and Oreo Blue at George’s Majestic Lounge). We’ll sit 1.5 miles away at the top of Razorback Road and watch the fireworks display with our own choice of music on the car stereo. We’ll drive home when it’s all done but still minutes before the first of the traffic arrive. Hah! -30-
