We have just returned from spending ten days at the Sommerszene2018 Festival in Salzburg where we performed Of All The People In All The World in the beautiful setting of the Kollegienkirche.
Around 7,000 people saw the show during our time there, people from all over the world. Below are some observations on some members of the audience, collected over one hour on the final afternoon (16th June 2018) …
People looking down at piles of amber rice.
People looking up at white Baroque domes.
A boy with a pirate T-shirt and a girl with a top that says Love.
A couple with rucksacks, a guitar and a neatly rolled tent.
A woman with a crutch, a couple holding hands.
Three women with heart shaped biscuit necklaces with the initials S and F spelled out in icing.
A pregnant woman with her hand on her back.
A man with shoes but no socks.
Green plimsolls, white plimsolls, blue plimsolls. Green suede shoes, brown leather shoes, trainers with stripes and trainers with ticks. Sandals, sandals, sandals, walking shoes, espadrilles, high heels, sandals and socks, painted toe nails.
A tour guide describes in German.
A man drips ice cream.
A woman coughs, a man sneezes, a family laughs.
Two girls giggle on a bench.
A man takes his girlfriends’s hand.
Arms folded,hands tucked into trouser waistband, hands behind backs, a hand on a chin, hands in pockets, hands pointing.
A woman puts coins into the box on the votive stand and lights a candle.
A man dips his hand into holy water, crosses himself and backs out of the church.
A mother strokes the head of her baby held in a sling.
A woman kneels and says a prayer.
A baby cries in a pushchair.
Several pink shirts, a jumper draped over shoulders,stripy shirts and spotty shirts, a traditional Austrian dress, denim shorts, lederhosen, jeans with rips in the knees.
A girl runs around dodging piles of rice.
A father lifts up his daughter with one arm.
A man pushes his wife in a wheelchair.
A woman nods in agreement to her friend.
A father strokes his daughter’s arm.
Straw hats, baseball caps, bicycle helmets, dreadlocks, green hair, pink hair, no hair. Two full beards, close cropped stubble, a beard on a chin, a moustache that twirls at the ends.
A woman walks tentatively with two alpine walking sticks.
A girl takes a rest in her little sister’s pushchair.
People write messages on their mobile phones.
A man in a red checked shirt has a heated debate with a man in a linen jacket.
People take photographs of rice and architecture and each other.
A red leather handbag, shopping bags from expensive looking shops, cakes in a clear plastic bag, a pretzel in a paper bag. Sunglasses worn on the face, on the tops of heads, on a chain around the neck, clipped onto shirts by one of the arms.
People from Austria, Italy, the USA, India, France, Scotland, England, Brazil, Japan…
People who look like people you know.