Saturday, April 22, 2006

Airport Music

Coming back from Cleveland on Friday, I had to pass through Philadelphia Airport. Any airport on a Friday afternoon is a cauldron of stress as people hustle to get home after a long week while others head out for vacations and weekends away. In general, it's a miserable time to be traveling.

Well, Philadelphia is doing something kind of cool to alleviate some of that stress. From 4-6pm every Friday, the airport is hosting concerts from local musicians in the terminal. I caught some local jazz band called Freedom of Expression and while I'm not a big jazz fan, I enjoyed sitting there for 45 minutes listening to them roll through some Herbie Hancock and Duke Ellington tunes. I felt much more relaxed than if I had spent the time sitting at the gate listening to an endless parade of messages about other flights and unattended bags.

Burlington Airport should do this too. It's so simple yet so beneficial. They could get local musicans to play upstairs outside the restaurants in that little lounge area. People could hang out there to listen but the music would also tumble down over the railings to the large ticketing space below. I'm sure folks would enjoy it and it would give some nice exposure to local musicians.

I thought I'd send an email over to Burlington Airport suggestig the idea. However, the airport doesn't even have a website. They have just a page that says the site is being constructed and directing you to a general VT aviation site. Geez-louise! Only in VT could the main airport not even have a website in 2006! I guess if they don't even have a website, I can't expect them to be able to put together a live performace space.

2 comments:

jds said...

I saw this amazing group of seniors singing in that airport a few months back. They were all in these crazy red and white matching outfits and belting out off-pitch renditions of music I used to listen to with my grandparents. Pretty classic. I just sat there my cheesteak in awe.

Anonymous said...

Flatlander, I know the Burlington airport director and sent him a copy of your post and link to your site. Music in the airport is a great idea. Even once or twice a week it would be fun for the travelers and an opportunity for the bands. Who knows they might even go for it.

LD