Festa Di San Donato – Day Two!

I know! I know! I promised one blog a day on the 7 day festa –  but the dog ate my homework and it rained on my parade and well – it just takes me a while to edit two hours of video into two minutes. So here we are in day four and I’m sending out day two. Hey, I’m in Italy!

All of those posters all over the place and the few stories I saw in local papers just weren’t enough to pull in a crowd for Contest Musica Live. Knowing it wouldn’t start on time, we wended our way down to Piazza Roma. This was a two night competition of local rock, jazz, blues – and I have no idea what the hell they were playing – musicians. It was a serious affair – with a table of about 7 judges!   (Day two’s story will soon be out.)

We saw our trusty good pal, my cousin Carmella, at Bar Mix Fantasy, holding a perfect stage side table for all of us. After two Campari sodas I was ready for the onslaught of music from speakers that were taller than I was and hoisted up on two story towers.  The stage set up was spartan compared to the first day’s mega event.  What – they don’t even have chairs set up for people to sit on?  What is this – Piazza Roma as one big mosh pit?

I whipped my video camera out and off I went.

There were less vendors set up than the night before. The the shoe man had folks stopping and a new guy selling African carved art was just staring. As were the two candy vendors – staring into space.  No one was wandering around.   There were three new yellow tents of allegedly local cheese and others food stuffs. This two day event was also touted as two days of gastronomical delight.  It didn’t look like too many folks were delighted enough to stop. I walked over but didn’t recognize any of the three producers and I shop super local.

Yawn – what time is it?  Oh, 10:30 – so much for truth in advertising.  Oh right, as my pal Nicola says, Midge questa è italia.

The MC/Host spent about 10 minutes trying to wrangle an audience.   I have to give him a lot of credit for that.  There was not a crowd and he was trying to get whoever was there closer to the stage.  I’m thinking chairs would have helped.

What time is it?  My head is bopping over the camera.  The voice in my head said, when the music starts you’ll get your dance fever energy fix.

When the first group came out, the MC asked their names – the lead guitarist said “Anthony – Antonio” – hmmm. The Name of the group was “House of the Rising Sun.”  HMMMMMM!  They were from the neighboring Morcone and a fairly good number of fans gathered around the palco – stage.  The bands English pronunciation was spot on as they sang – you’ll hear.  HMMMMM?  After their set, the audience left.  I think this group of cute young musicians – the lead guitarist made my  – oh never mind – anyway these young men were smart enough to bring a ton of folks from Morcone – or the Jersey shore – to hear them.  Sadly, very few folks were there to listen to the remaining groups.  I will admit after the second group – a Nirvana take off band  – started wailing we left and headed home….

Here is the video short form of the night –http://youtu.be/xRrTfe7mRoQ