Gloria Gaynor @EXPO2020!

(3/4/22)

When we got home last night, G said she would like to finish EXPO 2020 by seeing all the countries, and if we woke early in the morning, we should be able to get into the queue for Germany and Egypt. Japan is impossible.

I woke early today and took her a cup of tea. G is a morning person, so it was unusual to find her still asleep. When I asked if we were going, she said, "I think we've done what we can with EXPO", so I went back to bed, and we both enjoyed a leisurely morning doing our own thing.

It's a funny thing when you get so close to a target but fall short. Something in you wants to know if you could have finished it. I suggested that rather than queuing for the two countries left in the heat of the day, we could try closer to finishing time. We set out just after 6 PM, hoping to be there by 7, but there was so much traffic we didn't get to the EXPO site until 8:10!

The first thing I noted was Gloria Gaynor being advertised to perform on the EXPO Street Music stage. (This is located at the entrance we've been using.) What a surprise! When we left last night, there was no mention of this. With all the determination we could muster, we headed straight to Germany. Still long queues, in fact, they closed it as we approached. I think the security guys are fed up. Egypt did the same. Ditto Japan. No amount of pleading worked, so very disheartened, we walked back to the gate, thinking we'd catch what we could of the Gloria Gaynor concert.

It turns out they had a 30-minute delay, so we saw it from the start. WHAT A TREAT! Her band was fantastic, as was she. At 78, she's still got it and can belt out a tune! She chose a great selection of tracks that reminded everyone how happy and upbeat the music of the 70s and 80s is/was! Even young kids got into it!

She was followed by a young British DJ (Martin Avari) playing similar music, but most people started to leave. We sat on a bench just outside the gate, enjoying the music and talking about our whole EXPO experience. We didn't take a parting shot.