CWazyTom's Celtic Woman: Celebration Tour Adventures (SPOILERS)

Lakeland Florida (2020)

Lineup:

Mairéad Carlin
Tara McNeill
Megan Walsh
Chloë Agnew

Set List

Act 1:

Homecoming Lament
Mo Ghile Mear
Follow Me
(Mairéad introduced Chloë)
Isle of Hope (Chloë)
Dulaman (Mairéad)
Across the World (Tara)
(Mairéad introduced Isle of Innisfree)
Isle of Innisfree (Mairéad with Tara on harp)
Amazing Grace
Over the Rainbow
Three's Company

Ceili:

The Kesh Inn (Tara)
Teir Abhaile Riu

Act 2:

Orinoco Flow
When You Believe (Chloë)
Nella Fantasia (Mairéad)
The Voice (Megan)
Skyrim / Dragonborn (Tara)
May It Be (Mairéad, Megan, Chloë)
Sive
(Tara explained what Sive is about and introduced Danny Boy)
Danny Boy (all with Tara on violin)
Enchanted Way (Tara)
You Raise Me Up
The Parting Glass
Finale


The Stage and The Opening

The show opened with curtains covering the stage, maintaining the suspense of opening night.

The tour started with Homecoming Lament. The curtains were still closed. Lights from behind the stage cast enlarged shadows on the curtains.

The curtains dropped and the lights came up, revealing all 4 ladies on stage at the top of the stairs performing the Voices of Angels arrangement of Mo Ghile Mear.

The centerpiece at the back of the stage was a Celtic-stylized painted white white ring, reminiscent of both the the first Celtic Woman show and the triskele floor pattern in Ancient Land. During the show, there were images projected within the ring (more on that later).

To me, the big stylized ring, painted in plain white on a black background, seemed a little tacky. But it ended up working pretty well during the show.

The back centerpiece was flanked by curtains, reminiscent of Emerald.

The stage featured a single flight of stairs in the middle, flanked by two raised percussion platforms, and the band at the foot of the platforms. The drums had the beautiful Celebration tour logo on the front.

We were sitting in the first row behind the pit. But that ended up being quite far away from the stage, since there was a wide isle Isle the back of the pit and the first row of orchestra seating.

Dresses

The opening dresses were the same ones the ladies wore in their Celebration tour promotional photos.

Tara came out in a bright blue dress to kick of the Ceili portion of the 1st act. After The Kesh Inn, the the other ladies joined her on stage wearing bright colors of their own. Chloë's dress was sky blue, Mairéad wore a dark turquoise. Megan wore a bright aqua. Tara wore a shade of blue a little lighter than Chloë's.

The dresses in the 2nd act were all shades of purple and maroon. Mairead's was the darkest shade of purple.

The Show

This might be the best arranged set list I've ever heard on a Celtic Woman tour!

Mo Ghile Mear set the tone for the show with lots of energy and backed by thunderous percussion.

After a rousing edition of Follow Me, Mairéad officially welcomed Chloë back to Celtic Woman!

Chloë's opening solo was Isle of Hope, a song she performes frequently on her solo tours. Chloë encouraged the audience to sing along for the final chorus. There was a decent amount of audience participation.

Chloë seemed to be having a LOT of fun on stage throughout. After years of insisting she had no desire to return to the group, she seemed to be absolutely thrilled to be back.

I wasn't sure if she would be able to see me in the row behind the pit, since it was pretty far back from the stage. But I guess I was in a decently lit area, since she apparently noticed me and waved / pointed at me a few times during the show.

There weren't too many technical hiccups during the show, in spite of it being the opening show of the tour. There were very few obvious lighting miscues. There were a few times the girls' mics weren't turned on soon enough when they started talking and the mice came on part way through what they were saying. The most glaring issue was during Dulaman. At several times during the song, there was a deep, loud hum of feedback coming over the speakers. Mairéad definitely noticed it, but she did a fantastic job maintaining her composure.

During Dulaman, Mairéad took flight down the stairs with the aid of two of the choir members / dancers.

Isle of Innisfree was a duet sung by Mairéad and with Tara on harp. This was the loveliest arrangement of the song I've ever heard.

During the Megan/Chloë duet part in Amazing Grace, one of them was missing their notes and the harmony was a little off. They recovered quickly though and the rest of the song was really well done.

Chloë sang When You Believe with as much heart as ever. While she did a fantastic job, there's really no comparisson to her singing that song with an orchestra behind her.

Mairéad's performance of Nella Fantasia was epic! She sang with every bit as much heart as Chloë. She delivered on her big "opera voice" notes. This was a beautiful jaw dropper.

That was a tough act to follow, but Megan came out on stage and performed an astonishing version of The Voice. Megan channeled Susan at times as she moved about the stage and she absolutely owned that song vocally. It was another jaw dropper.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, all three singers came out on stage to sing a 3-part harmony of May It Be. That was the first Celtic Woman song I listened to in its entirety and fittingly, that night in Lakeland, it became my favourite arrangement of the song and my favourite song ever! The harmony was immaculate and gorgeous beyond comparisson. The sound was ethereal,  enchanting and immensely soothing, My jaw was open the whole time. Chloë actually noticed from the stage and started smiling, but she held it together. Near the end of the song the choir came out on stage with artificial candles. It was breathtaking! This one NEEDS to appear on an album and DVD. It was soooo amazing!

I wasn't sure how this arrangement of Danny Boy would sound without Éabha, but it sounded fantastic! While Éabha had supplied depth to the sound, Chloë added a new dimension with strong mid-tone vibrato. It worked extremely well!

The crowd to that point had been average, with Gregg, Tracie, and I doing most of the in-song clapping. The crowd got really into The Enchanted Way though.

I haven't been the biggest fan of some of the Celtic Woman arrangemnts of You Raise Me Up over the years. It certainly was never at the top of my favourites list. That all changed in Lakeland. As the girls dazzled us with their voices, a beautiful tribute video played within the stylized ring at the back of the stage. The video featured past and present members of Celtic Woman and memorable photos over the group's first 15 years. That was an overwhelmingly emotional part of the show and was perhaps my favourite moment at a Celtic Woman concert.

Celtic Woman closed out the opening show of the tour with The Parting Glass. The ovations after the You Raise Me Up and The Parting Glass were sustained and impressive. The girls almost got choked up at our reaction.

Ancient Land was a tough act to follow. But the first show of the Celebration tour, the first Celtic Woman show I've ever seen without Éabha, somehow managed to top it. There were multiple 10-bell jaw dropper in the show and every song was more amazing than I could have expected.

I'm really glad I get to see this tour up to 13 more times!

Post-Show

Gregg, Tracie and I waited for a while between the stage door and the busses. We saw some band and choir members, but security eventually told us the girls were already at their hotel, which was connected to the venue. But fortunately we would have a lot more chances to meet them on the tour, and the stage encounter after the very next show was EPIC!

I thought that Megan sang Innisfree... Was I wrong?

I thought that Megan sang Innisfree... Was I wrong?

Mairead and Tara sang Innisfree. Megan did The Voice and I See Fire.

Fort Myers (my 2nd show)

Before the Show

Before the show there was some Irish dancing in the lobby near thr merch table. I got to (finally) meet Silje and her mom before they went to the Meet and Greet.

We also chatted with Ronan and a few of the other choir memebers.

I had purchased a LOT of merch on night one. Nothing new for me on night 2.

The Show

For the second show of the tour, we had a lodge (side balcony seat stage left, just a few rows away from the stage!

It was interesting to see the show from above for a change.

I wasn't sure the girls would be able to see us, but eagle-eyes Chloë somehow spotted us again. She pointed, waved, and smiled at us throughout the show.

There were a few minor lighting issues in the second show, but overall, it went VERY smoothly.

The set list for the second show was the same as the first.

We were hoping John would come play bagpipes from our lodge during Amazing Grace, but apparently some areas of the theater wouldn't have been able to see him from there, so he played from stage left right in front and below us.

May It Be was as breathtaking the second night as the first and You Raise Me Up (and its tribute video) had me in even more tears than the first night.

The crowd the second night (almost a full house) was more enthusiastic than on night 1.

Post-Show

As if the show wasn't amazing enough, the stage door was absolutely epic! I got to meet most of the band (including, finally  Caitriona). Then, out came Méav!!! After 15 years, I finally got to meet her and take photos with her!

But the excitement didn't stop there. We met all 4 of the leading ladies and Chloë took a group selfie of us with her, Tara, and Mairéad. Megan told us they felt lucky to have us as fans (awwww). Gregg and Tracie finally got to meet Chloë! We told the girls (and Ronan) how much we loved May It Be and they seemed genuinely surprised. We had nice chats with Chloë and Megan and quick chats with Mairéad and Tara as well.

It was a LONG drive back to the BnB after the stage and greet. We didn't get back until.about 2 AM. But super-Tracie was a champ and got us all back safely!

One day off and then we see our 3rd show of the tour in St. Petersburg, Florida!

They seemed to removed the video on You Raised Me Up. They didn't play it at the concert in Athens, GA.

ST PETE, FL

So ended up going with 4 other people to the show.  No M&G, but it's almost not worth it anymore.  I thought I was going to get "yelled at" in Fort Myers because I actually said 4 or 5 words to each girl, and got a hug from Chloe.

Anyway, my daughter and I were in the 4th row.  She was on the end.  Chloe saw us and pointed at us and waved.  The couple in the row in front of us asked at intermission about it.  Showed them a couple of pictures of us and Chloe over the years. 

This was my 3rd show this year.  Chloe brings a whole new level of energy to the show!

They seemed to removed the video on You Raised Me Up. They didn't play it at the concert in Athens, GA.

Yeah, for the first 2 shows of the tour, they played a tribute video for a large portion of the song. The next 3 shows of the tour, there was just a few seconds of the video at the end and I found the song overall didn't have nearly the same emotional impact because of it. For the show in Atlanta, there was no video at all for any song. Lol.

St. Petersburg, FL (my 3rd show)

The show I saw Fort Myers was great! Almost no dropoff in excitement or enjoyment level and a noteworthy post-show stage door encounter.

Sadly, things started going really downhill from there for me.

My seat for the 3rd show was 3 or 4 rows back. The view was ok, but my mental state was not. My anxiety and depression were both ramping up throughout the time between shows. I thought I might be ok as the show was about to start, but during almost the whole first act, I experienced an emotional "plateau" where I pretty much couldn't feel or enjoy anything. I've had a few mild occurrences of that before, typically when I'm tired or I've already seen a tour show several times in a short time span. But I've never felt such an extreme amount of emotional indifference during a Celtic Woman concert. There was nothing wrong with the show. The girls and everyone else on stage was fantastic as usual. The lighting (particularly the spotlight) was still not quite on point, but I didn't think it was too big a deal. But that plateau was really frustrating and disappointing for me and unfortunately, things got out of control from there. Even before the intermission, I was spiking up to the 8 or 9 out of 10 anxiety level. It's kind of an arbitrary scale, but suffice it to say that's really, really bad for me.

The anxiety and depression continued escalating during the interval (intermission). By the time I got back to my seat, the "plateau" was gone, but had been replaced with really intense emotions. I think I was crying during almost the entire 2nd act. I'm not talking a little tear building up in my eye, my face was absolutely covered from basically May It Be onwards.

It started during Chloë's solo "When You Believe." Nella Fantasia and May It Be really opened up the tear ducts. I was even crying the whole time during Skyrim and Sive it was so intense. I rarely cry during Danny Boy for some reason. This time, I felt it big-time. By You Raise Me Up and The Parting Glass, I was pretty much reduced to uncontrollable sobbing. Several of the girls noticed (I'm pretty sure Chloë did anyways and she seemed to be moved by it).

For some reason, the tribute video they had been playing at the end of the show was drastically shortened starting with this show. I found it much less effective being so abbreviated like that. It felt almost like getting herded through a rushed M+G.

Don't get me wrong, I loved that feeling a lot more than what I experienced during the first half, but the whole time the anxiety and depression were spiraling out of control. For most of the second act, my hands were shaking too much to hold a phone steady and I couldn't really do standing ovations comfortably since my legs were too unstable to stand. As soon as the music ended and the shield of emotion dropped, the anxiety and depression rushed back in to fill the void. Just after the show ended, I was probably at a 9/10 or 10/10 anxiety. I felt like I was terrified out of my mind of everything around me. I was clutching my water bottle with both hands looking nervously all over the place, shivering, and twitching uncontrollably. My chest felt like it was being squeezed by a boa constrictor and I wasn't 100% sure if I was having a panic attack or a heart attack I was sweating and aching so much. Sadly, I did not have my panic-attack meds with me at the time. Big mistake to forget those that night. I had to sit on a bench just outside the theater doors for like 15 minutes because I couldn't even walk anymore and just had to bury my face in my hands to try to hide from all the stimulus that driving me crazy.

In spite of the whole stage door and bus area being barricaded and security-patrolled, we hung around the stage door. At that point, I was still too afraid to get in the car. It was easier for me to just stand around for a while until the anxiety depleted my energy a bit. Some of the band and choir members walked past us around the barricade, along a fence. They saw our group and waved, but didn't stop. We ended up waiting a while, until the visitor parking lot was empty, but we didn't see the girls (I think I saw a couple of them get on the bus, but the bus just stayed parked there and I don't know where the girls ended up going). It's just as well, for me...I was in no condition to talk to any of them that night and I probably would have terrified the performers if I had even tried.

It didn't get any better by the time we got back to the BnB. Not even the stuff I take for panic-attacks could control it at that point. Eventually, I ran out of energy though and got at least a couple of hours of sleep. But I never fully recovered from that attack for the rest of the trip and it put a significant damper on almost everything that followed.

The next day was an excursion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I was still not ok in the slightest by the time we got there, but I managed to get myself psyched up enough between the parking lot and the entrance that I was able to enjoy the experience for the most part. The park was incredibly well done. The attention to detail, the creativity, ... it was all well beyond my expectations. It was a badly-needed day of fun!


Melbourne, FL (my 4th show)

I forget if I've mentioned it before, but as a result of some yet-unidentified problem, I haven't slept through the night one time since early January. I've been getting no more than about 2-4 hours of sleep nightly that entire time, no matter what I do. I fall sleep quickly, but then wake up in the middle of the night with anxiety symptoms. I feel like I'm on a caffeine high immediately and can't go back to sleep, even with medication.

Well, that happened again the night before my 4th show (in Melbourne, FL). In spite of being exhausted, I was quite sure I was going to just get more depressed and anxious if I sat around and skipped the Kennedy Space Center, which has been on my list of things to do for the past 32 years since I had last visited there. I was hoping by the time I got there, I would get excited like I did at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter the day prior. Unfortunately, that didn't happen at Kennedy Space Center. There were a lot of things I found interesting and I don't necessarily regret going that day, but my anxiety and depression were so high again that I probably only got less than 25% of the enjoyment out of it that I otherwise would have. By mid-afternoon, I was just tired and fed up with myself and everything else so I just sat around for a while until it was time to Uber to the venue.

For the 4th show of the tour, I was in the balcony, quite a ways back from the stage. It was a pretty poorly designed balcony in my opinion. It was just one long row of like 60-80 seats with no isles separating them. So to get to the middle where I was sitting, I had to walk across by almost 40 seats right next to the railing. I have problems with heights, although I can sometimes just tough it out and fend it off pretty effectively. In that weakened emotional state though, it was pretty uncomfortable being up there.

For the 2nd show in a row, it started with me at an emotional plateau. This time, it didn't go away after the 1st act. It persisted the whole way through. I didn't have another panic attack that show, but I pretty much couldn't enjoy any part of it. The tribute video during You Raise Me Up was once again very minimal.

After the show, there wasn't any realistic possibility of meeting the girls at the stage door. The stage door / bus area was completely enclosed by a tall concrete wall. Honestly, I wasn't interested in meeting them that night anyways. I wasn't feeling it at all and didn't care whatsoever about interacting with them.

I worked from the BnB for the next 2 days (a measure I implemented to ration my vacation days for later in the year, not knowing at that point how ridiculous the Covid-19 situation would become). It was extremely difficult to concentrate and my anxiety and depression just stewed relentlessly the entire day.

So ended, unceremoniously, my trip to Florida. I wish I could have enjoyed so much of it more than I did, especially given that over half the shows I had planned to see later in the tour ended up getting postponed to 2021 or cancelled. But this is what it's like living with mental illness when it gets out of hand.

I have just one show left on the Celebration tour to write up. That was the Fox Theater show in Atlanta. I'll hopefully get that written up over the next couple of days.

Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA (my 5th show) - Part 1 of 2

Word of warning: it gets dark before the light at the end of the tunnel, so beware. I decided to split this into 2 parts. If you're sensitive to people talking about depression and anxiety, the 2nd half will be a lot lighter than the first.

The Celtic Woman: Celebration tour show at the Fox Theater was my 5th (and as it turned out, final) show of the 2020 Celtic Woman Celebration tour.

If you read my previous post, I'll probably be aware that I wasn't doing so well for most of this trip. I've had a few really rough days over the past few months, but the day of the Celtic Woman show in Atlanta was by far the worst I've experienced in over 4 years. If I had to rate that on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst depression I could imagine, that was a 9 (maybe close to a 10) that day.

On the flight from from Orlando to Atlanta, the anxiety and depression got way, WAY worse. By the time I got to the hotel, I didn't want to go to the Meet and Greet or even the show. I was feeling so low I didn't care about anything. I was feeling completely empty and worthless and feeling joy of any kind was impossible. I didn't want to go to the venue because I was pretty sure (based in part on my experience at recent shows) that I would be able to enjoy it at all and that would make my level of depression even more dangerous than it already was. I wanted to go to the M+G even less because I was really sure I was going to be a disaster in front of the girls and would probably destroy whatever piece of my reputation actually remained. Besides, I had been in multiple Coronavirus hotspots over the past week and a half (it wasn't a full outbreak by then, but it was still probably risky to even meet the girls at all).

Since all the tools and techniques I know of to try to calm down were failing miserably at that point, I decided to take some drastic action. I walked around the hotel for about an hour at a fairly brisk pace, deep breathing the entire time. Didn't help much. Then, I took 2 extra pills for panic attacks (bringing the dose for the day to 3x what I would normally take for a panic attack in progress) and then at lunch, I chased it with 4 beers. For those that don't know, I can't take much alcohol. 1 makes me a little tipsy. More than 2 in a day tends to make me feel sick. I've only gone beyond 4 in a day one time in the past 15 years. I figured that cocktail was potentially dangerous enough to just stop my heart or something, but at that point, I truly didn't care. I had just been to multiple shows featuring my favourite thing in the world (the live music of Celtic Woman, the one thing that a few years prior had eventually gotten me out of the insane hell that was 15 years of relentless depression) and felt essentially nothing for large portions of those shows ... even had ridiculous anxiety spikes, depression, and panic attacks DURING a show!

That got the anxiety down a little but it still didn't help with the depression at all. I didn't have anything else I could take for that on hand. I had decided earlier in the day that I was just going to flip a coin to decide whether or not to even go to the venue. Then decide just before the M+G if I wanted to go to do that or maybe just give my M+G pass to someone else and just try to get through the show itself.

Taking a step back, The Fox Theater in Atlanta had been on my bucket list since shortly after Believe. This should have been a day I was excited out of my mind. I was at a bucket list venue to see my favourite group, featuring my favourite singer ever as a guest, with a Meet and Greet! How could it get any better? Thinking about how I was basically about to squander this dream made me feel even worse.

The coin came up tails, so I went to the show (by Uber of course ... I wasn't as drunk as I was expecting to be, but I was in no condition to drive. I "hid" my keys from myself earlier in the day to be safe. I wasn't sure if I was happy or not that the coin had come up tails. I was more indifferent than anything, I suppose.

Sorry this first half was so dark, but it was a really, really difficult day (and week). The next part will be a little less depressing, hopefully.

Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA (my 5th show) - Part 2 of 2

On the Uber ride to the venue, I listened to my driver chew out his insurance company for 45 minutes. It was oddly comforting to hear about someone's problems other than my own for a change. The traffic was pretty bad (it's almost always bad near Atlanta, but it was extra-horrendous that day). Fortunately (?) my driver knew some pretty good back routes to get around the parking lot that was the highway. So I made it just a few minutes late for the pre-M+G reception across the street. I had split an exorbitantly priced M+G ticket with Mr. Peabody and the ticket included a pre-show reception (basically finger foods and drinks). At that point, I decided to lay off the alcohol and go with some caffeinated pop instead, because surprisingly, 3 clonazepam and 4 beers over the span of a few hours had started to make me a little drowsy. Lol.

Chatting with Mr. Peabody kept my mind occupied for a little while and that helped the wild assortment of drugs and alcohol to take effect and calm me down a bit. With around 30 minutes to go until the M+G, I decided to give it a shot and hope it worked out. I would normally be incredibly anxious going into a M+G, worrying about whether or not I would remember what I was planning to say, how rushed would it be, how much of a fool would I make of myself, etc. This time, I basically felt nothing (a combination of the meds, alcohol, and depression, perhaps).

The M+G was behind a curtain off the the left side of the orchestra level seating in the theater. I was still feeling pretty indifferent to everything, but at least I could appreciate finally being in that spectacular Fox Theater in Atlanta. For those that don't know, this was the place where Celtic Woman recorded Believe, which over the years has worked its way close to the top of my list of all-time favourite Celtic Woman specials. Certainly the album was one of my absolute favourites.

I usually try to stay near the back of the line to try not to use up other peoples' time with the ladies in case I just can't communicate effectively in front of them, a common affliction for me. This time (for reasons that might be more clear if you read part 1 of the writeup), I just wanted to get it over with, so I was close to the front of the line. I wasn't sure what was going to happen when I waked through that curtain and saw those amazing ladies waiting for me. Usually, I'd get all excited and emotional. This time was pretty much like most of the CW show in St. Petersburg, FL ... I felt nothing. No excitement, no joy, no anxiety ... I was just there, standing in front of the most amazing women in the world, without feeling a thing.

Chloë was first. She asked me something about how I was doing. I paused awkwardly and didn't know how to answer her. I ended us saying "umm..." or something to that effect and scratched my head. That was about it. Chloë took initiative and gave me some good news which will remain a secret here. My reaction probably confused her, even though she didn't seem to show it. I think I said something like "ok" and nodded in just about the least enthusiastic way possible. I think I said part of what I wanted to say to her, although I'm quite sure my delivery wasn't even up to my usual (low) standards.

Even if Chloë didn't notice something was really wrong with me, the other girls certainly did. Mairead Carlin was next. I delivered the first part of what I wanted to say to her surprisingly smoothly, though again, with practically no emotion behind the delivery at all. She looked confused as though she was expecting something different or something more after that. I just moved on to Megan and said something to her about May It Be. This was the one time during the whole M+G where I actually showed a TINY bit of appropriate emotion. I told her that May It Be was the first Celtic Woman song I had ever listened to in its entirety. Mairead, Tara, Susan and Eabha already knew this from the Homecoming Tour, but Megan and Chloë did not, so I figure it was an appropriate time to recycle the material for them. I told Megan that it was fitting that after 15 years of beautiful music, it was fitting that their version was now one of my favourite songs ever. Last came Tara and for whatever reason, the wheels just completely fell off again in front of her. This time, it wasn't because I was too emotional from having delivered to the other girls already. It wasn't because I was overcome with joy. It was more because I just felt exhausted from a brutal few weeks/months of anxiety and depression and a pretty-much disasterous trip to Florida and Georgia. I reverted emotionally in front of her to the mental state where I just didn't care at all. I tried to get out what I had planned to say, but it didn't work at all. I was stumbling over the words. I couldn't remember anything (in spite of having rehearsing those simple sentences over over 40 times). It was incoherent, embarrassing ... pretty much all the reasons I'm reluctant to go to M+Gs anymore. Fortunately, Tara apparently had the exact quote I was trying to deliver to her on her fridge, so even though she wasn't sure of the exact wording either, she knew what I was going for.

It was super-tacky, but even in the time leading up to the M+G this year, I just didn't care:

Winnie the Pooh once said: "You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Thank you for helping me believe some of those things about myself.

Unfortunately Tara, I haven't been very strong lately, or smart. Although I'd say I was brave (probably more stupid though) for even attempting a M+G in that state of mind. I tried to finish the planned quote, anyways, but couldn't get the words to flow at all. Sett had heard enough at that point and rightly (and sternly) cut me off.

I managed to force a smile onto my face for the photo, but it's by far my least favourite M+G photo. Almost nothing about it worked. The strips on my dress shirt sent the camera crazy. Also, Megan, no doubt confused and probably concern by how bad I was in front of them that day, couldn't quite get a smile going. I don't blame her in the slightest.

For some reason I still can't explain, I actually felt better after the M+G. For one of the few times on the trip, I was able to fully concentrate on the show and enjoy it.

There were still a lot of problems by that point in the tour getting the spotlight on at the right time and place. The odd thing about the Atlanta show though was that they didn't run ANY video on the screen behind the stage. Not for any song in the show. They just had some twinkling lights. It was pretty, but it was surprising to me how much that video content actually contributed to the show. It felt different without it, especially during YRMU.

The rest of the show went really smoothly though and I was able to enjoy it. The girls pretty much didn't make any eye contact with me during the show even though I was front row (stage right). Probably because of that super-awkward M+G, as well as the fact that there were a ton of legitimate super-fans sitting near the front. Lol.

During the interval (intermission) I rushed up to the balcony to take some photos from up there. This theater is truly spectacular! It was designed to look like a Turkish castle. The "sky" on the ceiling has twinkling lights and projected moving "clouds." The whole area around the stage is super-ornate. It's an old but amazing theater and has a pretty cool history (as I learned during the excellent guided tour back at the Fox Theater the following morning).

The crowd in Atlanta was definitely the best crowd of the 5 shows I saw on the 2020 Celebration tour. It wasn't quite as enthusiastic as it was during the live DVD recordings for Believe (during which there was reportedly standing ovations after every single song in the set list). But the crowd was pretty good at clapping along to the ceili songs and all of Tara's up-beat numbers. The crowd at the end of the show though was absolutely incredible! I'm talking "Ancient Land tour Red Rocks 2019" incredible! The audience was on their feet for a good minute or two after YRMU (in spite of there being no video tribute behind the girls). After The Parting Glass was even more epic! Even after the girls left the stage, practically nobody left and the standing ovation went on for maybe 3 or 4 minutes! We saw some of the girls come back to the stage wing and wave at us. But they didn't have any encore prepared and didn't come back out. Eventually, they brought the lights up and started shooing people out, but except for MAYBE Red Rocks, it was the most epic audience reaction I've ever experienced.

After the show, we waited outside the stage door. There were a LOT of fans waiting. 30-40 perhaps. There was a narrow lane between the building and the busses for people to stand and wait for the performers. It was surprisingly cold (close to freezing) so most of the performers, especially the band and choir members, didn't stick around and pretty much walked right past, waved, and got on the bus to get warm.

It was a bit of a wait (30-50 minutes maybe), but eventually the girls came out. Because there were so many super-fans there and they were possibly still freaked out about the M+G, most of them just waved and moved further down the line to talk to other fans. Tara was kind enough to spend a couple of minutes chatting with me about anxiety and depression. I told her a bunch of what I had been experiencing over the past week and a half (more like the past 7 months). She seemed genuinely sorry for me and sad I was going through that. That was really touching and I appreciated it very much. She is such a wonderful person and she's soooo good with her fans.

Megan and Chloë waved and walked past but I didn't get to say anything to them before they got into conversations with the legit super-fans in attendance, some of whom they probably hadn't seen yet on the tour. Mairead didn't chat with me for long, but she did mention that I looked a lot happier than I did before the show. When she saw me come in to the M+G area, she apparently could tell pretty quickly that I was having a really hard time. I told both her and Tara that they cheered me up. Mairead gave me an "awww" of sorts and Tara appreciatively declared that that's why they love to do what they do. While the formal M+G itself truly sucked for me (it was probably my least favourite M+G with any performers I've ever experienced), the stage encounters were nice and they really did help me.

Thus ended the my last show of the 2020 Celtic Woman: Celebration tour. It was a very rough trip for me, no question. Overall, I'm glad I went, but there were probably more "bad" times than good, unfortunately. But now that I reflect on that difficult time, I'm starting to realize that as bad as things got during that week and a half in Florida and Georgia, the most important thing is that 4 of the most kind and talented performers in the world and their incredible team, through all my challenges, still found a way to Raise Me Up. <3