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Author Topic: My Ancient Land dvd filming experience  (Read 2716 times)
Tracie
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« on: September 16, 2018, 03:34:26 AM »

My husband Gregg and I have spent the past two weeks in Ireland and this trip was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. As many of you know, we booked this trip nearly two years ago and got insanely lucky with the Ancient Land filming dropping right into the end of the trip. We had to change our flight home by two days, which of course we were willing to do the moment we found out we had gotten tickets for the filming. We had an incredible time traveling all around Ireland and are now on the bus heading to the airport to fly home.

For day one of filming, we arrived at Johnstown Castle about three hours before the show started. There were maybe 50 people waiting in line already and we met Tom and David pretty much right after arriving. The time waiting in line flew by having you guys to talk to! While in line, we also could hear a bit of soundcheck. When they let us into the seating area, we got second row!

It was really awe-inspiring seeing the stage setup with the castle right behind, especially when they turned on the lighting. They lit up the castle in shades of purple, blue and green and it was so beautiful. There was the band, an orchestra, the four main dancers/choir members plus more choir members, a group of drummers and a group of bagpipers.

The ladies were stunningly gorgeous and absolutely incredible as always. Megan had an excellent debut! There were so many brand new songs and I loved all of them. Tom has the whole setlist in his write-up so I won't list it all again. I can't say enough how phenomenal, epic, amazing, incredible, spectacular this show is! Loved it so very much!

Night one of filming ran fairly smoothly. They did re-takes of three songs in the second act (Danny Boy, Going Home and The Parting Glass). Fine by me, I love hearing the beautiful songs more than once! Other than that, there were very short breaks in between songs.

During the show, we got eye contact and smiles from Mairead, Eabha and Tara! They definitely recognized us from the way they looked at us. So awesome! Also on night one, we met and got our picture taken with Anto!

On day two, we had a fan gathering lunch that was a lot of fun and then me, Gregg and Tom went out to the castle together and explored the grounds. It's really beautiful there and we got some great pictures. We were hoping to run into any of the ladies, but didn't. We did see the PBS crew doing some filming by the lake.

We got in line about four hours before the show was going to start and were some of the first people there. At that point they were letting people really close to the stage area and we were able to watch and listen to soundcheck which was really cool. More of the beautiful music! People were taking pictures and one of the crew members walked over at one point and we thought we'd be told to stop, but all she said was to not post them online before the show. Cool! Also before the show a PBS camera guy asked fans in line who wanted to talk about their love of Celtic Woman, so I did. So fun!

When we got inside, we got front row!! Second row was awesome on night one and front row even better! So incredibly cool to sit front row for a filming! And again, recognition and smiles from Mairead, Eabha and Tara!

Night two also ran fairly smoothly with the exception of the fog/mist making the stage wet. They took three or four breaks for the stage to be toweled off. I'm just really glad nobody fell or got hurt. As Mairead so adorably said, it was "Celtic Woman on Ice!" They did re-takes of Long Journey Home and Tara's Tunes on night two. Phenomenal show again and it was so awesome that they added in three more new songs on night two that we hadn't heard on night one! That made it so that we heard the entire Ancient Land album. This is going to be a really incredible one everybody!

On night two, Susan was in the audience! Tom and I very briefly met her before the show. I said hi to her and she rubbed my arm and said "hi how are you!" At intermission she was getting swarmed by fans and the same after the show. After the show I was able to get up next to her and asked for a picture and she said "yeah of course!" so I snapped a quick selfie with her! Yay!

We also met Glenn and Ronan, told them their album is amazing, and got a picture with them! We've met Glenn before, during the Voices of Angel's tour. Ronan asked my name and Glenn goes "oh that's Gregg and Tracie." OMG he knew us by name!!

We also met and shook hands with Ray both before and after the show and spoke very briefly with him, telling him how much we loved the show.

Alan and Carl and the other two dancers walked by us a few times (including in town before lunch) and we gave them lots of cheers and told them they're amazing.

Absolutely incredible experience! Can't wait to hear the album and watch the PBS special and blu-ray!
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CWazyTom
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« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2018, 05:53:05 PM »

What a wonderful couple of nights!

Part of me still can't believe we were in the first row at a castle in Ireland for a DVD recording of our favourite group ever.

I'm reminded of a question that was raised at the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy: After experiencing something that amazing, how do we go back into the world and live our normal lives again?

It wasn't all that long ago that I felt like a person with terrible luck. But after seeing the Ancient Land DVD recording from the front row after a couple of amazing weeks in Ireland, I feel like we must be some of the luckiest people in the world.

I'm so glad that both our trips were amazing and it was really nice to meet you all.
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VegasDavid
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« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2018, 09:50:58 AM »

I'm glad you and Gregg had a great time and got to meet so many celebrities, Tracie!  Maybe I'll see you next year at "Celtic Woman on Ice"!
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Tracie
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« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2018, 11:30:06 AM »

Tom - I agree, it feels like such an incredible dream that we were sitting front row for our favorite ladies at a castle in Ireland! So amazing! 🤗

David - haha, see you there! 🤩
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