BBC’s groundbreaking documentary “Planet Earth” is taking it on the road and Chicago is one of six cities that is being graced with its presence. Last Wednesday, I headed to Pritzker Pavilion to check out the phenomenon that is Planet Earth. I’ve never seen it and figured watching clips of itin Millennium Park while George Fenton (the actual guy who composed to music for the documentary) conducts the Grant Park Orchestra is the best way to get my nature on.
Sometimes I forget that I live in Chicago, a city with a population of 2.8 million. Someone other than me may want to see Planet Earth Live too. Start time was 8:15pm. I got there at 8:10pm, thinking there would be tons of empty grass space for me to plop my MSU blanket. Umm, no. People had clearly been camped out there for hours, with their picnics and wine and yard games, enjoying the spectacular summer evening.
Note to self: leave earlier and bring wine.
As the sun set over a sea of skyscrapers, Planet Earth Live began. Polar bears, dolphins, elephants, tigers, oh my. For those of you who have seen Planet Earth, this is old news but holy cow! These animals are amazing! Did you know that there’s a group of crains who scale Mount Everest every year? Crains! These big ol’ birds fly over the peak of a mountain that claims the lives of 1 out of 10 human climbers. Unreal.
The area of grass I was sitting in was surrounded by people with the best food. I mean, these people really outdid themselves. I saw homemade cheesecake still in the springform pan, a build your own salad bar, tacos, takeout from Sopraffina, hummus–I could practically smell the olives in the tapenade from the picnic next to me. Food, music and wine–pretty much the perfect summer night.
Did I mention this whole thing was free? Yes, FREE. I couldn’t believe I had the opportunity to see a 2 time Grammy winner conducting his own score and a ground breaking documentary for free. I’ll tell you one thing–I am going to start paying a lot more attention to the Millennium Park calendar from now on.