Julia Harding of Fox News gave the Centennial Olympic Park’s firework display as ending with the 1812 Overture…when instead, prior the fireworks, the youth symphony ended with the climax of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, while the fireworks display ended with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. I know this because we were at the display, and afterward when I was trying to find how many people might have been present I found and watched online the Fox news clip. From it, I was unable to learn how many people were at the display because Julia Harding said that Centennial Olympic Park said it was “against their policy” to divulge how many people were present. What I did discover is either the climax of the “1812 Overture” is now easily confused with “Ride of the Valkyries” or someone at Fox perhaps thought it a little odd that the closing music was “Ride of the Valkyries” and preferred it had been the “1812 Overture”.
Maybe “Ride of the Valkyries” is standard now and I didn’t know it as for a number of years we’ve attended the fireworks display in Decatur, sitting on a popular grassy area a good half mile away where you (mercifully) can’t hear any music.
Though living in Midtown, we’ve continued to go to Decatur for the fireworks as H.o.p. has always opted for it, having good memories. But this year, given the choice, he decided on Centennial Olympic Park.
We rode the train. The streets around the park were so jammed with people it was nearly impossible to reach the park’s entrance, standing room only everywhere, inside and out, and barely standing room at that. Literally.
The New York Christmas crowd outside FAO Schwarz paled in comparison.
Attendees were simply wanting a good time. No one around us complained. They sang the songs they knew and whooped and clapped and we shared our thoughts on the display with each other as it progressed.
I can’t remember the complete musical program but there was some requisite country and Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America” and Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes forever”.
Then there was the finale, “Ride of the Valkyries”.
And I wondered at the choice.
No, nothing really to say about it except that, all things considered, I wondered at the choice, conjecturing nothing.
After the display, attendees pouring out into the streets of paralyzed traffic, we realized there was no way we’d be able to get a ride on the subway for at least an hour, perhaps longer.
It was a nice, cool evening for Atlanta, so we walked home, purchasing for H.o.p., along the way, a couple of cheap July 4th glo-sticks from a street side table, its Muslim merchants anxious to clear stock.
Leave a Reply