When we got on the airplane in Girona a dream of mine was realized. I was starting my first international tour to a strange land where a new language, an international music festival and a weekend of new experiences awaited us. The trip was especially important for me as my father was visiting and accompanied us on the journey. He had not seen this group perform in concert and his first taste would be at a huge festival in Germany.
Unfortunately, the airline was not prepared for a band of travelling minstrels and did not have space for our instruments. I ended up having Diego's guitar and my bass strapped next to me in a seat. The cheap airfare experience was made worse by the blasting in three languages (Spanish, German and English) of advertisements halfway through the flight for credit cards and frequent flier miles. Even so, we made it to Frankfurt in good spirits and our driver, 'Tillman', was waiting with a huge industrial sized van to take us to the city of Kassel.
After three and a half hours of my dad and Diego forcefully encouraging Tillman to keep his eyes on the road (the best of which was Diego, in broken English, explaining that he wanted to see his son again, so please drive carefully) we made it. He took us to a great Turkish lunch spot where we all ordered big German beers and then to the hotel. The Hotel Astoria was simple, but elegant and our rooms looked out over the ancient church, one of the only buildings that survived the WWII bombings by the Americans.
We were flown in for the first day of the festival, but were not scheduled to perform until the second night. We were taken from the hotel to the theater to watch the evening’s performances. As we arrived one of the organizers escorted us back stage by and, wow, what a spread! All the drinks and food you could want, a private room for us and musicians everywhere. The festival chose a country each year to be the focus and this year Spain was the featured act. So, we get to Germany and there are Spanish musicians everywhere!
After some great music from Anabel Santiago and Rafael Cortés, we headed out to a tapas bar called El Gitano (The Gypsy) and had a jam session with Diego's uncle and some other local musicians. Great fun, but I was ready to get some rest in prep for our show the next night.
I could not sleep though. I was restless. I saw the crowd the night before and it was a packed house. The Germans seemed to be very receptive to the other groups, but how would they find us in comparison? We had an intense practice in the afternoon to iron out any wrinkles in the repertoire. We were ready, but the butterflies were slam dancing in my stomach. I went back to the hotel with dad, tried to take a nap, but it wasn't happening. I did yoga, I paced, I took a walk, but the reality was I was more nervous than I had ever been for a concert.
Diego opened it up solo with a beautiful flamenco classic, 'Mariposa Blanca' as we peeked from behind the curtains at the faces in the crowd and giggled with excitement. For me though, the nervous feeling shifted as I stepped on stage. We blazed through a couple songs and the butterflies changed into my power animal. The crowd absolutely loved it! By the end we had them in the aisles dancing (and from what I can tell of Germans in general, this is hard to do) and shouting for more. What a feeling! It is actually addictive to feel a crowd erupt after laying your heart out playing and singing. I can attest.
We left the next day, the organizer of the festival saying that in years he hadn't heard anything so powerful and moving. We hope and pray to return to Germany where were treated not only with respect as artists, but with admiration as musicians.
