I’ve been to concerts before, but not children’s concerts.  In fact, I really didn’t know what to expect, except for some singing and dancing and Vanessa jumping up and down like a crazy kid on a sugar high screaming at Barney.  As it turns out - Vanessa was a very demure and quiet child.  She sat in our laps the whole time, just staring at the stage, and clapped only at her favourite songs. 

For $495 HKD a ticket - we got relatively good seats.  Although we weren’t sitting at centre stage (which you should next time), we were sitting on the first row on the first set of seats starting on the sides.  This means that when Barney made his appearance, we couldn’t run up like the rest of the fanatic kids to the stage (see enclosed photos -all the kids were piling at the stage that it almost become riot like and the organizers had to step in to push the parents back) - or interact as much when they started tossing 4 HUGE floatable balloon balls into the crowd.  That really got the parents worked up - I think they had more fun at that part than the children.

The run down was basically each character making a 10-15 minute appearance and singing about 3-4 songs.  The characters that showed were:  Angellina the Ballerina, Fifi, Pen-gu (whom Dennis dubbed PAY-GOO like bottom in Cantonese), Bob the Builder and his crew, Sam the Fire Fighter and the best for last, Barney the Purple Dinosaur and gang.  They did sing songs that most kids know, like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Incy Wincy Spider”, but most of the songs were foreign to me (maybe unless you followed the cartoons).  I think Vanessa would have loved to see Dora the Explorer present, but too bad.

The organizers also sell glow sticks and sparkling wands ($50 HKD each) and Barney hand puppets ($80 HKD each).  The suckers that we were, bought everything.  They also sell ice cream, popcorn, soft drinks like a theatre, so no shortage of food or drinks.  In general, it was an OK event (for me) - but for Vanessa, even though with her passive attitude, she was asking for more.  The parents really have to get involved in order for the children to see and enjoy the show - because the energy will feed off them.  At one point, before Barney was about to show, I started screaming like a lunatic fan “BARNEY, I LOVE YOU” and Vanessa joined me in welcoming him on stage.  It was great!!  Oh yah, we also saw Cecilia Cheung (the singer/actress) with her gang and son (minus Nicholas Tse).  All in all, I think Vanessa enjoyed the show and the 1.5 hours it ran for was sufficient.  Except, at the price was a bit steep - but seeing how packed the floor seats were, I don’t think people were stingy on giving their kids a front row experience!!  I will probably take my kids next year.