Lisbon Convention 2013 Part 3 - Entertainment

The majority of the Entertainment at the Convention was held in the Atlantico Pavilion, which is alongside the main convention centre. On Sunday morning, the DGN and I arrived using the door to door taxi service laid on for us, and made our way into the pavilion. On our way in we got talking to an Aussie couple, one of whom, like the DGN, used a wheelchair.

                                   Atlantico Pavilion, some think it looks a bit like an alien spacecraft has landed

We found ourselves being marshalled into an area at the front of the arena, to the left of the stage, where the stewards wanted wheelchair users to congregate. I left the DGN there whilst I took a seat a few rows up with my new Aussie friend.  After some introductions, the flag ceremony commenced. This is an event which happens at the beginning of all Rotary International Conventions, and it really was quite a spectacle.  One by one, youngsters from a local school carried on stage the flags of all the countries in the world where Rotary is represented. I think there were over 200 of them, including countries that I didn’t even know had a flag, such as Antartica (Yes, there is a Rotary club at the South Pole). Once gathered together, these flags remained on stage throughout the Convention, a reminder of how far reaching this organisation is.

                                                       Another flag is brought on stage during the flag ceremony

RI President Sakuji Tanaka then came on stage to deliver his opening address, to a standing ovation from the 10,000 or so attendees. I joined in this ovation happily, as I had met Mr Tanaka previously, and have a great deal of admiration and respect for him.  As the week progressed, Mr Tanaka appeared on stage a number of times, and each time he received a standing ovation. I thought that was a bit much. Not only that, but a number of RI executives and staff, past RI Presidents, Rotary Foundation trustees and others also paraded on stage, hand in hand with their wives / husbands to a standing ovation. I quickly became rather tired of this obsequiousness. After standing the first time Mr Tanaka came on stage, I didn’t give anyone a standing ovation. In my view such an enthusiastic reception  should be earned, not assumed.  Interestingly, as I looked around the auditorium, most Brits, Europeans and Aussies seemed to agree with me.

Next on stage that morning were the sensational singing quartet, Il Divo.  I had heard of them, and thought they would be good. My Aussie companion was almost in tears. It transpired he was a massive fan of Il Divo, had never seen them at a live show, and like me had no idea they were performing that day. He would have come to Lisbon just to see them never mind the Convention. A closer check of the programme showed that, yes, there they were, but only in smallprint and no fanfare. Anyway, the 40 minute show was fantastic, and I thoroughly enjoyed one of the highlights of the week. Unfortunately the DGN had an altercation with a steward during the flag ceremony, decided to leave the building, and subsequently missed Il Divo. I played down how good they had been, so as not to rub salt into the wound, so to speak. Thereafter, we had much better seats overlooking the arena with an excellent view of proceedings.

                                                                                                          Il Divo

Besides the Plenary sessions in the main arena, there were numerous ‘break-out’ sessions, and delegates could choose which ones, if any, to attend. As I was on the Membership committee for District and club, I attended a membership seminar, hoping to learn something new. Alas I didn’t. A more interesting seminar was held on the subject of Rotary in Russia, which I found  very interesting. There are only a handful of clubs throughout Russia, enormous though it is, and their District Governor must have a lot of ground to cover to visit them all. The seminar was hosted by a very engaging Russian chap, who was extremely enthusiastic about all aspects of Rotary, particularly about the concept of ‘Friendship Exchanges’. This is a scheme by which Rotarians in a particular country can host a group of Rotarians from another country, and show them something of the local area, and its culture. The roles are then reversed, and the visit is done the opposite way round.  The only problem in Lisbon was that the Russians had been given a very small room, and it was very crowded, and some could not get in.

Back in the Pavilion, there were a number of other outstanding entertainments, including the British singer Hayley Westenra and a superb performance of Fado, which is a type of folk music popular in Portugal. The singer is usually dressed in a certain way and accompanied by two musicians. Without understanding the words, I would guess that the songs are invariably sad, with the underlying theme of ‘He done me wrong’.

                                                                                         A typical Fado band

On one evening we were taken out to an ‘Experience Portugal’ evening organised by local Lisbon Rotary clubs.

There we were given traditional food (some of which I quite liked) and traditional music. No Fado 
this time, but there was a super little group dressed traditionally who played a series of tunes on 
ukeleles. I was sitting with Tim Cowling, one of the other DGEs from the UK, and we were likening 
the performance to George Formby, and joking that one of the tunes was probably a Portuguese 
version of a Formby classic ‘Quando I’m cleaning windows’.

Our taxi journey back to the hotel from that evening out was one of the most memorable ever. The driver showed an interest in what we had been doing, and I happened to mention that we really enjoyed the Fado performance earlier that day. He was delighted with this, and declared that he sang Fado, and would we like to hear some? Well, how could we refuse? Next he inserted a backing track into his CD player and sang Fado songs to us for the rest of the journey home. He really got into the mood and I am sure there were tears in his eyes at one point.

At the end of the Convention, The DGE and I stayed on for a couple of days to see something of Lisbon before going home.  To be continued….