My First Vina Robles Concert

Today I worked my first concert at Vina Robles Amphitheater as an usher down in the inner section immediately in front of the stage. I arrived at 4 p.m. and left around 11 p.m. with a half-hour break late in the concert. We arrived and at that time found out precisely where we'd be stationed in the event and what we'd be doing as well as were issued our shirts identifying our role as members of Guest Services. This is much like Star Trek where different shirt colors denote different roles on the ship. Quite fortunately, light blue shirts here are not the equivalent of red shirts on Star Trek! The one hazard we did face was the heat (at least early on) with one member of my team getting faint from heat exhaustion at one point and needing a break.

This event was our "soft" opening as it was a free concert to introduce the venue to our community and generate interest and publicity while we as a staff and indeed the entire operation used it to practice for our "hard" opening on July 6th. The first act of four (all of which I loved) was Jill Knight and the 805's (hippest act) followed by One Time Spaceman (my favorite) followed by Girls + Boys (lead singer Brianna Lee is HOT) and climaxed with the Zongo All-Stars (the highest quality act) by which point a lot of folks had congregated up in front of the stage to dance, something we did not allow earlier in this free concert and won't be allowing the rest of the concert season.

All in all the concert seemed like a success although there were a few minor logistical details we need to improve upon before our hard opening with the band Yes on July 6th. I certainly had a ball and enjoyed myself much too much for someone being paid to be there.  The property itself is brilliantly layed out and looks fabulous. Something I heard oft repeated today was "there is not a bad seat in the house" and I wholeheartedly agree. To my artistic eye the lighting in particular is visually sumptuous which I feebly tried to capture in the images below.

Note: the images below were shot on my break or after I was off the clock for the night except the first image. I am borrowing a friend's camera to which I am unfamiliar so the quality of most of the images below is lacking in my judgement so please pardon me while I get better with this machine.

This image was taken right after I signed in while we were awaiting instructions.

Taken during my meal break from the top of the amphitheater showing the stage while the final act of the night, Zongo All-Stars, were preparing to perform.

Alcohol booth

The other alcohol booth.

Moon rising over the entrance gate.

Zongo All-Stars performing following my logging off the clock.

VIP bar.

View looking into "The Barrel".

View looking out of "The Barrel".

Moonrise over the amphitheater.

Another moon shot featuring the entrance gate.

My friend Lisa whom I've known since childhood hamming it up with one of the Miller Security personnel.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes(all rights reserved).