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Re: Chicago tubachristmas date?
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 10:09 pm
by Stephen Shoop
The Dallas Tubachristmas concert takes place on the final BUSINESS day before Christmas. This is because many who come to our concert work in downtown Dallas and are not there on the weekend. The Fort Worth event (with one exception) has been held on the prior BUSINESS day before the Dallas event.
Re: Chicago tubachristmas date?
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:06 pm
by sinfonian
The last decade or so it has been the Saturday after Midwest. It used to the Thursday of Midwest, but I was told that after the E2 Night Club fire/stampede in 2003 they moved it to Saturday because the crowd was too big for the venue. Personally I preferred Thursday since it brought more tubist who were coming to midwest. Also since I work downtown and live in the suburbs I liked taking my tuba to work and taking a long lunch for Tuba Christmas instead of coming downtown on my day off.
Re: Chicago tubachristmas date?
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 3:15 am
by tofu
sinfonian wrote:The last decade or so it has been the Saturday after Midwest. It used to the Thursday of Midwest, but I was told that after the E2 Night Club fire/stampede in 2003 they moved it to Saturday because the crowd was too big for the venue. Personally I preferred Thursday since it brought more tubist who were coming to midwest. Also since I work downtown and live in the suburbs I liked taking my tuba to work and taking a long lunch for Tuba Christmas instead of coming downtown on my day off.
OTOH, also having worked downtown and living in the suburbs as well, it is far easier to take the train with a tuba on a Sat. vs the packed trains of a weekday. It also gets old having to play a concerto for the office, answer the inevitable non-stop questions/jokes about what's in the big black bag in your office etc. Plus, depending on where your office is in the loop, getting to the venue is not always easy and many employers just aren't going to allow an employee to take off for a few hours in the middle of the day.
Sat. also allows kids to play and to some degree isn't that what it is about? Add in that parking on a Sat. downtown for those who drive/park is about a third of what it is on a weekday. Is the Chgo. TubaXMAS for Midwest attendees or for local folks? I personally think the Sat. date works far better for a lot more people. I also like the fact that it is closer to Christmas. It's hard to get in the spirit with some of them that are so early in the season.