Amazing Date Night
by KaraokeDiva on 9/4/15Washington Park - CincinnatiHusband and I were lucky enough to have our names drawn to buy tickets to this year's event and we jumped on it. I was happy to pay what I considered to be a relatively small fee ($18 per person) to keep the event going and the number of people down from the year prior, and the event was worth far more than we actually paid. Parking note: We parked in a garage on Vine Street in OTR and walked over to the park and the cost was $10 (we normally pay $5 for that particular garage). The garage under the park was already full by 5:00 and, quite frankly, not worth the extra cost (I think it was $15?) or the stress of getting in and out around the crowds of other vehicles and pedestrians. I'd recommend sucking it up and walking a couple of blocks. The gates opened at 4:00 and we got there shortly after 5:00 to establish our seats - while there were a lot of people there already with chairs in place, there was still a lot of great space remaining to be claimed at that time, and we got seats right in the middle of the venue, about 40 yards from the bandstand - we didn't have the clearest view of the orchestra over the crowd (they were fairly low - and you really don't need to see them), but we had a perfect view of Music Hall for the gorgeous lights. After setting up our seats, we headed out to one of the great nearby restaurants for dinner and enjoyed chilling out for a couple of hours before heading back to the venue to check on our chairs, which were untouched - people were very respectful of one another's property. By the time we wandered back in around 7:30, though, the park was quite full and there were a lot of people sitting behind trees and tents with partially blocked views, so I'd recommend getting there early. We wandered around 'the village' for a while and carried a couple of the Glow beers back into the venue with us for the show. The show was absolutely incredible - it started with the Pops, whom we are huge fans of, playing a great set (no dancers the night we were there, as it had been raining most of the day, and the stage was quite slippery - luckily the rain had stopped by showtime). Then after 20-30 minute intermission, the CSO came out and the light show began. Amazing! I can't say enough about, or even begin to describe in words, how beautiful it was musically and visually. It's an event like this that makes you appreciate what a wonderful city for the arts that Cincinnati truly is. If we're lucky enough to get tickets to next year's event, we will definitely go again.