Rehearsals and Nuit Magique

Yesterday we had a rehearsal planned for the Nuit Magique [Night Magic] at 1900, which meant we were all ready to go in uniforms before 1830. Dinner is also served then, and it looked like we might miss out. Not to fear, the rehearsal was delayed because of the over run of the bagad competition, so we had a quick bite, since it looked like we'd be on at 2015.

I'm learning to get a little less optimistic about the times for suggested by the festival orgainsers. These times are relayed to us through a translator, who we have been assigned for the festival, and who makes sure we know what time to go on, etc.

As we stood, out of the rain [it was a good Scottish mist at this stage] the time for rehearsal got later and later... Eventually we got on at about 2130 - very close to the time of the performance, which meant we just rehearsed two parts of the finale [at this point, raining heavily], and:

Quote #3: Thankyou very much, goodbye

and the bands slinked away to await the performance, scheduled for 2230.

Finally the night magic arrived, and the 'Scottish contingent' performed at 0030... back to wait for the finale, and eventually finished at 0130.

The full stadium we performed in is pictured below:


After the performance my feet and lower back were in extreme discomfort, from so much standing around. I'm not sure the French are big fans of public seating. It was then: clean the pipes, check the uniform and get to bed, because we had to be on a bus at 0830 for a parade this morning.

The inverness cape that I packed for the trip earned it's keep!