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The park, situated near to the city centre of Southampton, provided a fine setting for an evening concert by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) on Saturday 12th July 2003,
followed by a Son et Lumière.
It was the first time Lynn and I had attended one of these concerts and we were certainly not disappointed. It was made all the better by
a perfect summers day which had put everyone in the right frame of mind as we, along with many others, entered the park around 18:00hrs.
After having quickly parked up we
then spent some time practising that old fine and quintessentially British art of queuing, only this was one of those finest examples where everyone just chilled out, joked,
talked about the weather, sport and other passing topics of conversation, as you do in these situations.
Whilst waiting in the queue to get past the ticket barrier, it had
been quite an interesting exercise just to observe what other people had brought with them for this open-air picnic. I was quite impressed with many, to whom it must have
represented a logistical exercise in its own right in planning their food, drink, seating, table and lighting requirements and then transporting the whole lot to
site. The occasion was made all the more interesting as many people had turned up in colourful dress, costume and flags. It left one feeling a little inadequate by
comparison.....
 Having got settled in near to the left side of the stage we proceeded to have our picnic and take in the atmosphere ahead of the concert. The
orchestra, lead by conductor Edward Warren, performed nine classical pieces starting at 20:00hrs which were well received.
Later, around 22:00hrs the Son et Lumière show commenced and for me this was one of the nicest examples I had seen in a long time
where fireworks, lasers and a good choice of music had been imaginatively packaged to form a creative display set against a
backdrop of the parks chapel dome, tower and nearby trees.
The photos on this page were taken with my Fuji camera. Although not
as good as I would have wished for as I did not have my tripod to hand and was having difficulty obtaining good focus in the semi-dark
conditions, I think they do illustrate the potential which digital cameras have for taking creative shots, but I will leave you to judge...
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