Concert in Northfield or Lost In A Sea Of Nordic Sweaters

Last Thursday Offspring #2 and I went to the St. Olaf Christmas Concert.  This was our final opportunity to go to this concert because she will graduate this May.  The concert is held in an athletic facility.  Most of the audience is seated in bleacher seats on the sides while a few are given floor seating.  We always sat in the bleacher seats before.  This year we got floor seating.  I'm not sure why we got the premium seats.  Maybe we got good seats because we owe them so much money.  But wowzers, what a different experience we had.  In the beginning of the concert, the singers fill the aisles and sing before they head up to the stage.  Kids are singing to our right, our left, behind us and ahead of us.  Because this is St. Olaf, just about every kid  in choir was THE best singer in their high school.  They are singing so close to use we can hear some individual voices. Each singer was belting out the tunes.  It was enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Eventually the kids filed up to the stage like you can see in the picture.  Every once in a while they would allow the audience to stand up and sing along.  Even the singers in the audience around us were very talented.  The St. Olaf tradition is to wear Nordic sweaters. You know Nordic sweaters - the kind with patterns knitted in horizontal rows around the upper chest? Some have reindeer and some have brass buttons and they come in darker colors.  I forgot to wear my Nordic sweater this year. I stuck out like a sore thumb.  At the end of the concert, the singers came back down into the aisles to sing the last three songs.  I was so impressed.  The music was very moving and the concert was a great way to start the month of December.  And the final advantage to floor seating?  I was out of that parking lot before a line of cars could form.  I was driving east on Highway 19 before the people in the bleachers even set foot on the floor.