Independence Day

Before the show

My alarm rang at 5:00 this morning. After my usual 20 minutes of snoozing, I rolled my lazy ass out of bed, made some desperately-needed coffee, and hopped in the shower. The gates to the Hatch Shell were to open at 9:00 and with a good hour-long commute there I had better hurry if I had any chance of beating the crowds.

Subbposedly the Boston Pops concert on Independence Day is one of the biggest in the country, so naturally I was concerned that I'd miss out. Fortunately, this was not the case, although there were 500 people acamped outside the gates by the tiem I stepped of f the red line at the Mass General Station at 7am.

The plan was to get in, find a spot on the lawn and, well, try to find entertainment for the day. I had packed a lunch (two turkey sandwiches, juice, and iced coffee), sunblock, a towel, folding chair, iPod, camera, pen & paper.

This paled in comparison to the sheer volume of equipment other people lugged with them.


Tents, canopies, tarps, umbrellas, coolers, inflatable mattresses, blankets, paper lanterns... and endless, endless flags. Giant flags, small plastic ones, falg canopies, flag shirts, flag towels, and my personal favorite: flag speedos worn by a rather patriotic gengleman.

After the show

The rain didn't seem to hold off all day, but we got off easy with just a few showers (I sought shelter in a nearby tarp... you'd be surprised with whom you'll make friends to say out of the rain). On the program, besides the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart, were Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Rockapella, Renese King, and Dr. Phil McGraw. I met Tiffany there with some of her friends from Salem State. There was an F-16 flyover after the Star-Spangled Banner, but I couldn't get a good picture. Hey, they were going 1,500mph! What did you expect?

The orchestra was fantastic; it was worth waiting all day for.


We left near the end of the show to try to find a place to stand on the island next to the Hatch where you can see the fireworks over the Charles. I didn't get any pictures of fireworks, but I did capture the last 30 seconds of the 1812 Overture on video: 1812_Overture_Finale.AVI [21.3MB]

I'd even consider going again. There's nothing like you and 500,000 of your closest friends.