Costume party at Abravanel Hall

Every year the Utah Symphony puts on a Halloween themed concert. Patrons and musicians alike are invited to dress up...there is even a costume contest. Music consists of classical music that has been used in Halloween-ish movies or maybe has a Halloween (ie: spooky) sound or theme. And though tickets to hear the symphony are never overly priced to begin with, this concert especially is very reasonable as it is billed as family friendly.

We decided to go. Originally we wanted to take the whole family but what with Brandon having a gymnastics workout and Julianne being swamped with last-week-of-term essays, projects and test studying, Lilian was the only one who could come. But hey, a little one-on-one with our youngest is never a bad thing, yes? Lilian's Halloween costume for this year was Luna Lovegood...a witch from the Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts. And that fit in nicely with this year's symphony theme, because the entire second half of the concert was to be devoted to music from the Harry Potter movies.

Bryan did not have time to dress up seeing as we picked him up directly from work after a long day of teaching. (Truth be told, I'm not sure he would've dressed up anyhow?) I wore all my Doctor Who apparel that I collected for our trip to Comic Con earlier this year. And as always, I got a lot of compliments on my exploding TARDIS Van Gogh dress and blue TARDIS knee socks. (And overheard people around me saying things like, "Look at her Doctor Who dress! It's the TARDIS! That's so cool!") I do wish I had brought along my red fez... oh well, next time.

Because of her "spectrespects," Lilian was very obviously Luna Lovegood, rather than just some random Hogwarts students from Ravenclaw. So she was delighted when people would pass her and say, "Hey Luna!" Or "Wasup, Luna?" Obviously with the theme of the music, there were a lot of Hogwarts themed costumes. Even the conductor was dressed up as Cho Chang...also from Ravenclaw house.

I had to laugh at the symphony member's costumes, many of them were so creative and just hilarious. How do you play your instrument when you are decked out in a huge shark costume? Lilian was delighted with the couple of violinists who were dressed up as Joy and Disgust from the movie "Inside Out." One of the bassoonists was dressed as El Nino with a big cloud on his head. The brass section was dressed as "the Breakfast Club"....bacon, eggs, etc. The tympani section were covered entirely in gold paint. Statues of some sort. My favorite? The harpist dressed as a loofah. I was worried Lilian might get bored after awhile, but she adored the whole thing. It was such a fun night...and of course, the music was phenomenal. Maybe we'll go again next year?