Day 222: Tartan Gig 100

Girlguiding UK is celebrating it's centenary year and there have been lots of extra special events for the girls to attend to make sure it is a memorable year for everyone.  We took our Guides to a gig organised just for Guides!  You wouldn't believe how loud they can all scream.  The noise quite easily filled the whole of Glasgow Concert Hall and I had my fingers in my ears to shut out them rather than the music!  It was most of our girls' first gig and we had wrist bands to get in and discovered the joys of glow sticks you can put round your neck or head or build long snakes to wave about and hit the Guider's heads in front of you (without noticing) who appear to be the only people not enjoying the gig!  Certainly it would not be my choice of music but why not enjoy the experience anyway?  Me and the other Guiders I was with would be more at home at a metal gig but we were all on our feet and dancing and cheering with the girls because it's more fun that way and we're leading by example - this is how to have fun!  I know that I wouldn't have done any of that at 10 if no one I was with was, and I still wouldn't even now.

The light up bunny ears of anticipation!

 

I had far more fun than I expected and my favourite artist was Alesha Dixon (top picture) who was the headliner.  She was good fun and she borrowed a set of the light up bunny ears that a huge amount of the girls were wearing from a Guide in the front row and wore them for a song.  I love it when celebrities seem human!  This probably isn't technically the best photo I have - it's a little dark and there's a lot of shadow but I think it's more dramatic than most of them and she's very definitely the focus while her dancers are present but very much playing second fiddle to her, and it's relatively flattering too - in a good number of them she's pulling a face or the microphone isn't well placed, etc.  I also had a go at taking photos of the girls which wasn't entirely successful.  I have one or two that aren't bad and one I definitely like a lot.  I think perhaps you would need a more diffuse flash for that sort of situation - too much flash and there was no indication it was dark and you couldn't see the glow sticks, too little and it was grey and grainy and it was very hard to get any sort of balance.  I quite enjoyed trying though and lets face it - this was a far better opportunity than the next gig I go to under my own steam - there is no way my camera is going anywhere near a bunch of moshers!