As I stood in line at the Aboriginal House, a woman turned to me and said, "I think the word Olympic is Greek for wait in line". And indeed, there are so many people here you have to line up everywhere.
But instead of walking from line to line and moving on, I decided to get in one. I chose the Four Host First Nations Pavilion because I wanted to get video and often find their performances to be very visual. The line wove around in circles but looked shorter than some I'd seen. The entertainment in line was amazing. I've attached some video. These two men played for almost the entire time I was in line, nearly an hour and a half. From outside the pavilion, I could hear the half hour performance inside and thought it was worth the wait.
Finally, it was my turn to enter. I got into the dome and sat down. Within a few minutes the Metis fiddle, jigging and square dancing started. Please see the other video. It isn't really what I imagine when I think of Aboriginal culture, but figured I was here to learn. Ten minutes later, we were asked to exit.... the show was over. The woman next to me said, "I am SO MAD". The crowd was not happy and felt as though they'd been robbed of their performance, particularly after spending more than a hour in line.
It turns out we waited in line for a transiton from early to late afternoon entertainment and the performers shift was changing, so we got what I would call the short end of the stick. I chalked it up to an Olympic experience. Before I stand in line again, I will find out what it's for and determine whether it is worth the wait. Lesson learned.
Hope you'll join us for our chat tomorrow after WETM-18 News at Six.
Leigh
