¡La fiesta grande de
TechEd
es un éxito enorme!*
(*The big TechEd party was a big success, old chap)
 Of
course the bit we all look forward to is the sheer spectacle of the TechEd
party. The big bash is traditionally held on the Thursday night, so as to
totally mess up people's brains for the Friday sessions. The party began as
so many have before with streams of TechEd bags flocking to a central
location and eating and drinking the night away.
The food was plentiful and delicious, comprising of
hotdogs, burgers, roast pork rolls, pizza, pasta and salads of all kinds of
varieties. The drink was plentiful too, mostly being the local cerveza
but also soft drinks of the coke and sprite style.
The esplanade of the Palau Sant Jordi is a thin
strip of water between two giant stadia constructed one suspects for the
Barcelona Olympics. At one end of the strip, with its covered stone
cloisters, stands the large Wembley-like structure of the main stadium, and
at the other end there is a small circular amphitheatre with a large pond at
its centre.
The first part of the evening was spent circulating
around the various bodies of water (there are some spectacular waterfalls
too) and queuing for excellent (if slightly cold) food.
The entertainments were manifold and consisted of the
kind of European circus acts that in the UK at least you would pay good
money to see. There were high wire acts, acrobats, clowns, and a bizarre
comedy human fountain act which defies any further description.
The odd ant-like creatures you can see in the pictures were peddled around
the esplanade by burly-looking geezers with rather puzzled expressions on
their faces, the sort of look you have on your face if you've been taught to
mime in an afternoon.
After much eating and drinking, we were instructed to
make our way into the smaller of the two stadia at the top end of the
esplanade. Small is a subjective term as it looked as though it might seat
25,000 people with comfort. After an Australian dance troop who danced
seductively inside huge silver duct tubing (one wag called it "Slinky Porn")
we were introduced to the leading act of the night.
It's easy to poke fun at a tribute band, but suffice to
say they were professional, sounded like Queen, and everyone seemed to enjoy
the concert. Some of us, on the other hand, agreed that they were not as
powerful and exciting as the REAL Queen. Some rather uncharitably suggested
that they weren't even as good as Queen Elizabeth II, but we'll let that go.
So in any event we left about two or three numbers into the concert to get
back out into the lovely ambiance of the esplanade.
Outside the night was cooling nicely and a wander around the amphitheatre
put us in an excellent position to see the prelude to the main fireworks, a
bizarre troop called The Devils who dance while carrying huge catherine
wheels on sticks.
Finally we had one of the best fireworks displays we've
ever seen. Big explosions, seen all over the city, a veritable fusillade of
colour and sound which at times verged on the almost TOO good. At one point
there was so many exploding things in the air you couldn't catch your
breath.
As certain of our number were leaving, as the fireworks
were exploding above us, bits of the shell casings from the fireworks were
raining down on people walking away from the venue, another good reason to
stay and watch, we felt.
All in all a cracking good TechEd party and one which
will be remembered for some time. Look forward to a rematch next year,
hopefully back on Barcelona for 2002.
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