July 4, 2022

Every 4th since the 70s, Boston has hosted a free concert put on by one of the best and most famous orchestras. To get to see it, you only have to show up. They give out wrist bands to access the oval, or the main seating area on a first come first serve basis. This year, they started allowing people into the oval at noon. Knowing this, we left the campsite at about 8:30 this morning. We parked the car in the same spot on the subway line and hopped on a train into downtown carrying chairs, a cooler, an umbrella (for the sun–no rain expected today!), and more. Once we got to our subway stop, there was still a bit of walking to the oval but it was early and still cool out.

We made it to the line for the oval at about 10:30 and then we waited in that line until they started letting people in at noon.

We were pretty close to the front of the line and we got a great spot front and center!

So now it was about 12:30pm and the concert starts at 8pm. We had time to kill. There were not a lot of great food choices in the oval (only tacos and ice cream). Nole decided he would rather guard our spot on the oval that wander around Boston with the kids so he grabbed one of those tacos and sat there under the umbrella. It was 85 degrees out today and sunny.

We walked about a half mile away to some restaurants. The girls got bagels from one shop, then I got chicken fingers from another while the boys went to Qdoba. Sadly, this strip of restaurants were under construction and had NO A/C!! We still enjoyed the food and free soda refills though. When we were finished we walked to Boston Common and laid in the grass or played depending on preference.

The girls were kind of disappointed that there wasn’t a playground on this side of the Common but we knew there was one next to the oval that they would get to play on later.

We checked on Nole via text and he was doing ok but we decided it was time to start heading back. We stopped and bought sandwiches and pizza to eat later for dinner and also stopped to get some cold drinks. We brought lots of water so we bought juice and soda.

We then made our way back to the oval. Nole took the girls to that playground while I rested at our spot.

This is kind of the way the rest of the waiting went. Some would stay at the spot and some would go to the playground or find some other shade. We played cards to pass the time. As the sun got lower, the spot in the oval got more tolerable.

The concert got underway at about 8. This is a televised concert which meant there were hosts and commercial breaks. During the breaks, we would learn about the history of the event or see a non-televised interview.

There was a camera panning the audience and we saw Nole on screen for one of the shots. I’m sure we were on more than once.

Besides the Boston Pops Orchestra there were several performers (descriptions from the concert website):

Chaka Kahn, singer/songwriter, 10-time Grammy Award winner, and 7-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee with numerous gold and platinum singles and albums

Heather Headley, singer/songwriter/actor and winner of Tony and Grammy awards, with Broadway roles from The Lion King to Aida to The Color Purple, currently appearances in Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias, and #1 hits on Dance and R&B charts

Javier Colon, singer/songwriter renowned for his blend of pop, rock, R&B, and acoustic soul

There was also the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes & Drums and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Chaka Khan did an awesome job. She is 69 years old and going strong! Heather Headley was an awesome vocalist and we really enjoyed her performances too.

The big finale is the 1812 Overture. They shoot off real canons and ring church bells during the song which is performed by the Pops each year. There was confetti too which was very popular with Nova and Asa.

Esme had fallen asleep a little earlier and slept right through the canons!

The fireworks started and the view from the oval is not great. We decided to try and beat ::some:: of the crowd and go to the subway. On our walk, we finally passed Cheers! We had been singing the Cheers theme song all weekend and just never made it over there.

The subway was a little crowded but I’ve seen worse. We were able to get on the first train but there were no seats available at first. Luckily Nova had a chair handy! Eventually we were all able to sit down as we got further from downtown.

The girls fell asleep on the subway and again in the car. We got back at about 12:30am. It was a long day but I’m glad we went!