Opera in the park tonight

I'm sure many (most?) people will have alcohol of some sort in the park tonight, and most likely won't really even try very hard to sneak it in. I have imbibed on multiple occasions in the park, without consequence. Last Friday, however, I was having a picnic with 8 friends (very low-key, very quiet) when we were descended upon by a policeman in one of those parking meter scooter things who basically told us it was our unlucky night. We then waited approx. 45 minutes while he took and ran checks on all of our IDs. While we waited, a police SUV (Explorer) drove directly across the grass Long Meadow to provide much needed back-up for our officer. They sat parked, with the engine running and lights trained on us for about 30 of the 45 minutes before we were finally issued $25 tickets (with the option to appear in Red Hook Court).

So, long story short -- can you drink tonight in the park? Almost certainly. The only apparent consequence is inconvenience and ridiculous waste of what I've been lead to believe are stretched NYPD resources.

what time does this start?

I'm looking forward to it and hoping (perhaps naively) that it doesn't get rained out...

Assuming no rain...what is everyone's guess on crowd size??
5,000?
10,000?
25,000?
100,000?

To answer the OP's question, I am bringing a lovely 2003 chateau neuf de pape decanted in a thoroughly cleansed Welch's grape juice bottle.

kosherdave wrote: [quote=OnEasternParkway]...descended upon by a policeman in one of those parking meter scooter things...

Man that sucks and is so fucking lame.
Were you drinking something they could readily spot or did they come over and check through your things? If one had plastic cups filled with a drink, would that give them probable cause to search bags, assuming one was stashing a bottle or two in a bag out of sight? Just wondering how they caught you. Asking WHY is probably the real question but sounds like they were just D bags mad that they had to work.

We saw him scooting around in his meter maid mobile and actually saw that he had stopped at a point on the path about 30-40yards from us, so we all chucked bottles and cans back into our picnic baskets and plastic bags. There were, however, wine glasses exposed. He came over shining his flashlight on our bags and baskets. There was booze visible, so we were busted. It's just astounding that it took 3 officers to handle things.(2 of whom never left the comfort of their SUV after plowing across the Meadow).

Much like a speeding ticket, I acknowledge that we were violating the ordinance and am willing to swallow the $50 for my wife and me, but the resources diverted for the better part of an hour (not to mention the borderline illiteracy on the part of the officer when confronted with reading names off of our IDs) were galling.

OMG I loved the bats!!! And I didn't get the mosquitos either.

Yeah, we had a lot of wine bottles around - red, white, champagne, the whole kabob. The police didn't bat an eye.

Subject: The Encore was fantastic

Everyone around me started to get up and pack up, stand and realize that there was another amazing performance. I think the encore lasted about 30-40 min.

I am not very versed in Opera, and for that reason -"it's now or never" was an added bonus.

The stage presence of Gheorghiu and Alagna was just about the sweetest thing i've seen in a long time! and when the conductor jumped off his platform to sing the last few words stothe moment!!

As for the bats - I swear the music messed with their sonar - i swear they were flying and flapping to the music.