San Diego Free Summer Concerts

There are so many events in San Diego County through­out the sum­mer, and last week­end we decided to expe­ri­ence a sum­mer con­cert by the beach. Con­certs and fes­ti­vals are held at var­i­ous loca­tions around San Diego, from Alpine Park, Bal­boa Park, Coro­n­ado, Del Mar and La Jolla to Solana Beach or Uni­ver­sity Heights. On that par­tic­u­lar Sat­ur­day after­noon, we headed to Sea­port Vil­lage to see (and hear) the per­for­mance of Rhythm Masters.

Wel­comed by the sound of hand drums, we stopped for a while and watched the band per­form­ing in the cen­ter of a large grassy area. Mov­ing on, we paused to look at the many dif­fer­ent per­form­ers charm­ing passersby with their tal­ents. A sax­o­phone player play­ing roman­tic tunes, a white-faced mime mak­ing audi­ence laugh with his tricks, (James took pic­tures of me assist­ing the per­former in one of his tricks. When James was asked to give a hand and became a part of another num­ber, I for­got to cap­ture this – sorry baby!). Some­thing I always get fas­ci­nated by when­ever we are in Sea­port Vil­lage is the bal­anc­ing stones. I have no idea how they do it! The stones are placed on each other in high tow­ers, bal­anc­ing and touch­ing only with their edges.

My favourite one was the man play­ing Did­jeridu – a wind instru­ment devel­oped by Indige­nous Aus­tralians 1500 years ago. I was taken by the music com­ing from this large wooden trum­pet, accom­pa­nied with the rhyth­mi­cal stomp­ing of the player‘s feet with bells around his ankles. Did­jeridu or Didgeri­doo was used orig­i­nally and tra­di­tion­ally with cer­e­mo­nial danc­ing and singing. We watched the musi­cian as he sat under his umbrella; his arms dark from the sun; skil­fully con­jur­ing music I had never heard before from this unique tribal musi­cal instrument.

A few min­utes later, on a secluded spot in the grass by the water, I read a book for a while. James sat next to me; watch­ing kites fly­ing around, (I am sure he was happy I stopped talk­ing for a minute), enjoy­ing the atmos­phere and the seren­ity of a sum­mer after­noon by the water.

Con­certs by the sea at Sea­port Vil­lage con­tinue every Sun­day until Sep­tem­ber 26.