A Concert in Rinia Park

Last Wednesday morning I got an email from my contact at the U.S. Embassy regarding a question I had asked about my mailing address.  At the end of the email she said she hoped I could come out for the concert that evening.

I emailed back, “What concert?”

And she sent me this announcement:

The Embassy of the United States invites you to an open public concert

September 26, 2012

19:00

Rinia Park, Tirana

Featuring Mary McBride and her band in a live performance

In cooperation with Top Channel artists

It sounded like a nice way to pass the evening and I really need to push myself to get out of the house more. So I decided to go.

Rinia Park is about in the center of Tirana (just over the bridge from which I took the pictures posted earlier). There is a center there, too, called Taiwan Center, which has an Italian restaurant and a few other businesses. Why it is called “Taiwan” I don’t know.

Anyway, I had been to the park before in the daytime to meet my U.S. Embassy contact and go for a shopping trip in an open air market near the park. When I went in the day, the park was full of families with small children either being wheeled around in strollers or toddling along on their own.

The same was true as I approached the park around dusk for the concert.

At first I thought I had the wrong place as I didn’t see a theatre set-up or chairs, but I did find a stage, so I figured I was in the right place.

I also found the Korçë beer stand. I asked how much the beer was.

Fifty lekë, about 50 cents.

You can’t beat that!

So I bought a cup of dark beer and wandered around a bit until I found my embassy contact, a few other embassy folks, and two young people who work for non-profit organizations here in Tirana. One is a U.S. citizen, who came to Albania last year on a Boren scholarship, a scholarship specifically awarded to students willing to study and learn the language in a country that is underrepresented in study abroad programs.

The other young person is an Albanian who works for NDI, National Democratic Institute, which is a Washington, DC-based NPO that promotes citizen participation. He told me about a project he is currently working on that includes gathering data from focus group meetings with youth across Albania to determine their interests in politics and public issues. Interesting stuff! I hope to have a chance to follow-up with him on that work.

We stood around for a while exchanging pleasantries and then the program started. A local celebrity (newscaster maybe?) introduced the program. The U.S. Ambassador said a few words. The music started.

The warm-up acts were two Albanian singers, who did not exactly perform “live,” but rather from previous recordings. My young companions indicated this was fairly common practice. Nonetheless, the music was catchy and the singers were entertaining.

Then Mary McBride, the headliner, took the stage. She was fantastic!

I would characterize her style as somewhere between Lucinda Williams and Mary Chapin Carpenter (but I am no music critic so take that for what it is worth J).

Her current tour is called, “Home,” I think, and her aim is to bring music to people in places that are not necessarily their permanent homes but where they currently find themselves.

A link to the U.S. Embassy press release about the concert can be found here. 

As I reflect on my concert experience these things come to mind:

First, how the crowd grew and grew as the music kept coming. And most everyone was just standing in the grass. It seemed really natural and allowed for more movement and conversation than if we had been sitting in rows of chairs. In fact, I struck up a rather long conversation with a young man standing next to me – something I doubt I would have done if the setting had been more formal.

Second, even though the beer was incredibly cheap and there was only one beer tent with two taps, the beer line was never long. That seemed incredible to me, as I can remember waiting what seemed like an eternity in beer lines at Mud Island in Memphis and Red Rocks in Morrison, CO.

Also I didn’t notice any overly rowdy (okay—obnoxious!) people in the crowd. People were enjoying the music, talking with their friends, dancing, but none of the activities of audience members  was “over-the-top.” As a woman well passed her prime concert-going days, I was very appreciative of this.

Lastly, I was struck by how family friendly the atmosphere was. Lots of young families and small children. Definitely a community feeling to the evening.

And the almost full moon was beautiful!

Mirupafshim!