What a show! Saturday evening with Vivaldi in Hampstead Heath Park.

With no tickets, but with plenty of determination, we headed to Hampstead Heath to attend Vivaldi Concert. We’d heard good things about it, like the concert would be staged in the open air, like there’d be places to sit outside the compound enclosed for the ticket holders and still hear what was being played. And, with fireworks the concert would come to close. These factors easily lured us to the place.

I’d been sick with stomach indigestion the whole day. I drank soup and spent the day watching movies, hoping I’d recover in time to attend the concert. I saw a grim British movie, a Canadian high school TV serial in DVD, and while watching Indian movie, fell asleep. The film was a good sleep inducer.

When Petra, my housemate and the person I was attending the concert with, came home and asked if I could make it to the concert, I nodded an empathetic YES. Though my stomachaches hadn’t vanished, the anomaly wasn’t keeping me home.

We had to walk for thirty minutes to arrive at the place. Armed with four cans of beer, a bottle of mineral water, and salads to relish as our dinner, we set about. The gentle breeze was mingling with the fading sunlight, and the greenery of park were a boon to our eyes, after hours we’d stared in front of our computers or TV. When we got closer to the site, our discernible ears sparked to life, with the sound of Vivaldi. Our pace quickened.

In front of the gates, from where only the ticket holders were allowed in, a slanted, green field stretched. To our amazement, hoards of people were picnicking, enjoying the music as well as playing games, or just lying down, eating and drinking. We soon found a place for ourselves, amidst these non-ticket holders, and sat down.

The concert continued as we started to sip beer. Soon, the fading light gave way to floodlights. Loud cheers and claps from the audience segued one piece from another. And then, at around ten, towards the close, the dark sky variegated. The start of the fireworks led many people scampering to places where they could see the spectacle unhindered. The trees, which moments back, were serene and a beautiful company, were now a ugly monster, blocking the unfolding vista.

We ran towards the entrance to the concert ground and was surprised the see the gate open. People were pouring in. We entered, stood and watched the kaleidoscopic sky, in awe as one after another, stars, carrying magnificent ammunitions shot up and burst, exposing beautiful colours in the sky. The concert, meanwhile, was reaching towards a crescendo. The noise from the heaven, of the bursting fireworks, was competing against the sound from the ground. Finally, a loud, final, and the biggest star erupted, exposing a whole galaxy of its colour, heralding loud grasps of amazement from the spectators. The music, then, as if in reverence to the fading lights of the sky above, slowly and inevitable, quietened down. The show was over.

And what a show it was.