Chautauqua Amphitheater, Chautauqua, NY

[ldyjocelyn]

An Evening with Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard

When Friday, August 6, 2010, 8:15 – 10:15pm

Where Amphitheater

Ticket Web Link www.tickets.ciweb.org

Ticket Phone 716.357.6250

The Chautauqua Amphitheater is a general admission venue. There are no assigned seating locations. We strongly recommend arriving early to ensure the best seating.

Prefered Seating: The Institution offers preferred seating on the floor of the Amphitheater for select events for an additional $15 fee. Every person wishing to be seated in this reserved section must purchase the $15 ticket, including children 12 and under. These reserved seats are on the floor section beginning in the front of the stage going back. The preferred seating ticket guarantees a seat in the reserved floor section on a first-come, first-served basis until the start of the performance.

*NEW THIS YEAR: Prepaid Parking: For those wishing to pay for parking with the order of your concert ticket. Parking is $7.25 per concert.

[luckiest1]

I intend to be at this show, even though the general admission thing sucks. Last time we damn near killed ourselves running down the ramps and diving head first into the church pews to secure our 2nd row seats. Hoping for another NY 3-fer like we had in 2007!

If you go to https://chautauquatickets.ciweb.org/?select=concerts you can see that most concerts are already on sale, however there is no link currently to buy tickets for Clay & Ruben. Anyone know when they actually will go on sale?

[luckiest1]

Tickets went on sale last night at midnight apparently without notice. The site doesn't appear to work for Canadians (even though it says it does).

[lilyshine]

Thanks for the heads up! Just got my ticket.

[merrieeee]

Ok lets go....i'm ready!

[luckiest1]

Not one single post in here? I guess all the usual suspects must have been there! Posting from the lobby of our hotel in Findlay Lake, which we eventually found last night after driving what seemed like forever down unlit, one lane roads. We were warned about deer but thankfully none jumped out at us. I doubt any of us would have been awake enough to see them anyways, even the driver (my daughter, good job Lindsay!)

Wow, what a 2 days it has been. Hopefully when I get home I wil remember enough to write some semblance of a Windsor recap, but what can I tell you about Chautauqua last night? After a 5+ hour journey full of bad decisions and wrong turns, we (me, Claymatron, luckiestdaughter, friend of luckiestdaughter aka disneykid) finally arrived at the Chatauqua Institute sometime around 1:30 pm. They wouldn't let us in, but sent us back to the box office to purchase additional $10 "afternoon" tickets. Otherwise we'd have to wait until 4 pm and we weren't doing that. So we hiked it over to the amphitheatre, certain we'd be about 80th in line, it was sooooo late. And there wasn't a single, solitary person around. WTF? We made sure at the visitor's centre that all 4 gates would be used for entrance that evening, and then picked one near the stage to stake out stand at. Claymatron wandered around to find the spot for her M&G and discovered a line of 10 or 12 people at the rear of the venue where they do wheelchair access. It is the only entrance down on the floor level so I guess people figured it would be a quick route to the good seats. We decided to stay where we were, which would involove a run down a ramp (but we'd done that 3 years ago and it worked out for us). No other fans joined us a for a few hours, but there was a really creepy man who came out of the Presbyterian House every once in a while and tried to pretend he knew us, wanted to shake our hands, bump fists, wink wink, I'll be back later and you'll save my spot, right? Um, no. And a semi-bitchy Chautauqua employee who absolutely insisted we should not stand there, but rather walk around the Institute and experience everything, because no one else would be lining up. Riiiiiight. We explained we were choosing to stand here, unless we were in her way or something? She said no, but got rather rude about it after a while. She just thought we were crazy I think.

So the band warmed up for an hour or so and eventually Ruben came out and sang a few bits and pieces of his songs. Quiana took Clay's mike and did a rendition of Suspicious Minds. Clay never made an appearance that we saw or heard (but to be honest, we couldn't see much from our vantage point and we were scared to leave it). There were a few people milling around and looking over the railings but I never saw anyone lining up anywhere until 6 pm or so. Then there were maybe 15 people at each gate, tops. I kept wondering where everyone was? Apparently most were down at the rear entrance. I did hear the screams eventually when Clay must have come off the bus and entered the venue for the M&Gs. Claymatron kept it together pretty well all day but was shaking with excitement by the time she went down. Cindilu2 and friend (who had a charity M&G) were cool, calm and collected. They offered to get some stuff signed for luckiestdaughter and I since they got their stuff signed in Windsor, so I sent a Rolling Stone with them and my daughter sent a copy of OMWH. Eeeeeeeeee! I've been dragging that poor copy of Rolling Stone around since 2003. It was still in a ziploc bag from the Cleveland Jingle Ball, I kid you not!

The annoying man came back and tried to get in line behind us. The people he cut in front of were (obviously) upset by this and told him so. He went on about how he'd been here longer than them, blah blah blah, and we kept our backs to him so he couldn't try and drag us into it. The more the people insisted he hadn't, the more upset he got, and then he launched into a shouted speech in Chinese which totally freaked us out. The guy was certifiable. He refused to move and by this point everyone was a bit frightened of him so we just ignored him. By this time ficus had joined our little line and she and the girls made sure to make friends with each and every usher who might possibly be taking our tickets when the gates opened. Hey, every advantage, right? Fran or Freida (can't remember) was the lucky one and when the gates finally opened at 7:20 she made sure to get us through quickly. We ran walked down the ramp with shouts of "no running!" from the ushers and managed to score 2nd row centre seats! Wheeeeeee!

There were 4 young girls (20ish) in front of us, one of whom Claymatron had with her in the M&G, and they told us they wanted to dance! So we agreed that if they stood up, we'd stand up too. The stage in Chautauqua is only about a foot and a half high, so what a view we had! I'd say the venue was about 80% full or so by the time the lights went down. But the nature of that venue is that the music attracts other people to come check things out. Those with a pass can enter for free. So people do wander in and out at will. The creepy man ended up in the 3rd row behind us and proceeded to tell everyone how 'rude' the people in line were. Thank goodness he left after a few songs. Ficus was beside me doing the CH cellcert. I sure hope I couldn't be heard singing and screaming all night (but I bet I could). Eeep.

I have never been so close at a concert before. Clay played up to the 4 girls in front who were attempting to mimic every step of the 60s medley. He made funny faces and exaggerated movements so they could follow along. It was really cute. I felt bad because I knew Scarlett was attempting to get clack behind us but we had no choice but to stand or we wouldn't have been able to see anything either. We explained this to the girls during a quiter moment of the concert and they didn't stand up as much during the 70s or 80s. But it is such a danceable concert! We were having a blast. I think Ruben and Clay both were feeding off the energy of the crowd.

There was some different banter than Windsor for sure. I got the impression at Windsor they were under time constraints so they kept it short. Not so at Chautauqua. The revival was really drawn out, and when Ruben asked Clay for money the girls in front of us quickly ran up and offered him $10. Clay came forward and took it from them but Ruben said that 'his father' didn't accept Canadian currency. Too funny. I"m sure you know by now about the kiss. It was right in front of us, OMG. OMG. OMG. There are no words. Clay was very pleased with himself and went on about it for a bit. I can't wait to see the clack because it was so loud in there I didn't catch Ruben's comment but it drew a lot of laughs.

When they finished the 80s medley, the crowd cheered so much that they revived it and did the ending a second time! So cool! And we had been advised by venue staff that partway through the 90s, we were going to be allowed to approach the stage again. So when TOML started, I jumped over the front row and then turned around and realized no one else was coming. Hee! Thankfully they followed me and security didn't throw me out. So it was another mini mosh pit, but this time with only a short stage, whereas the one in Windsor was a good 4 feet tall. Very cool! Clay walked along the front of the stage, just out of reach, but put his mic to us so we could sing into it as he walked. He seemed to really be enjoying himself up there. Apparently the mosh pit in Windsor was not planned by Clay and co. But I guess they must have liked it enough to do it again.

Afterward were wandered out the rear exit and there were lots of people waiting but Jerome had told someone 'no bus line' so we went for ice cream instead. My throat thanked me, I was pretty hoarse after two night of screaming and cheering.

[bottlecap]

Chautauqua pictures from Karen Eh?:

[treenuts]

Thank you for that wonderful recap, luckiest! So glad you got to show the boys the love and shake your groove thang

bottle, LOVE the pics of Mr. Yummy by Karen eh?! I hoipe she's attending more shows! He really is like an all day sucker

Why or why wasn't I born wealthy, independant and a young good looking gay man

[bottlecap]

Chautauqua Pictures by dancerdad via CV **NO OFC**

[cindilu2]

Photobucket links