A day at Six Flags

Friday 12th August 2011

The van with all our instruments on had to be at Six Flags before 10am.  After breakfast we all boarded the coach and at 9.30am went to join the van.  After a little confusion the coach made it to the "Backstage" area of the park.  As it turned out the heavier instruments and percussion had been unloaded from the van which just left us to unload the smaller instruments nearer the 3pm playing time.  At 10.30am the park opened and we were given free access to all the rides.  There were rollercoasters which turned you upside down and inside out; rides which soaked you to the skin and others which spun you so fast they dried you out again; you didn't know whether you were coming or going...It was fantastic, if you like that sort of thing. 

After four hours of testing our limits it was time for our first performance of two, and boy was it hot!  The stage was open roofed, the sun was beating down relentlessly and by the time we started it had to be easily 90 degrees Farenheit (32 degrees Celcius), if not hotter!  But we soldiered on, swigging plenty of water and applying plenty of sun screen to stop ourselves from getting ill or burnt.  Considering the conditions it wasn't a bad performance and after we'd finished our first set we had half an hour to cool down.  By the time we started our second set at 4.30pm a bit of cloud cover was offering us some intermittent protection from the sun, making it a little bit cooler.  However, by 5.30pm we were all pretty well cooked and ready to get off back to the hotel.  So we got all our equipment and instruments loaded back onto the van, jumped on the coach and headed home.

The evening was free time, so most of the band headed down to the Rio Centre and its selection of restaurants for dinner.