2019 US Summer Tour

[fan_de_LoK]

The official Libera site now says the detailed dates and venues for each of the 5 concerts.

Events page : https://libera.org.uk/events/calendar

Concerts USA 2019.jpg (79.74 KiB) Viewed 4058 times

Concerts USA 2019.jpg (79.74 KiB) Viewed 4058 times

[Surpinto]

Thank you fan_de_lok!

In doing my research and looking at these dates I am undecided between 4 main options . Hopefully going through some of this will help others with their own decision making because there are certain issues that I feel everyone should be aware of concerning these cities. I kindly request that anyone with better knowledge than what I have please correct me as my research via Google and other sources can't replace the knowledge of those who live in or have traveled to these places.

Saint Paul and St Louis: These cities have similar advantages and disadvantages. There is no need to rent a car as there is a metro that runs to the airport and reasonably close to the venue if you're not against walking a little bit. There are direct and reasonably priced flights generally available from many major US airports (it is a different story for those outside the US of course). Both cities have fairly compact city centers and/or tourist attractions which are easily accessible by a metro line; these areas contain various tourist sights, museums, and the like which can be explored. Both venues are beautiful and large cathedrals.

Oklahoma City: This may unfortunately be the least accessible of the three cities; especially for those travelling from the St Louis concert. For starters I could find no direct flight from St Louis to Oklahoma City. The stopover flights that exist require either a several hours layover in Chicago or Denver or some other city. Alternatively a 50 some minute layover in Dallas-Fort Worth is an option but the risk of missing the 2nd flight due to delays is quite high with such a short layover time. Driving 8 hours between the cities is an option but if you are renting a car there could be extra costs for having a pickup and drop off point for the vehicle that are different. Once in Oklahoma City, the venue is not accessible by public transit and so a car is absolutely essential. While I admit that I haven't researched the matter in the greatest depth, there seems to be little to do in Oklahoma City as a tourist compared to all of the other places. The only advantage to Oklahoma City appears to be the modern church venue with none of the columns or other physical obstructions to see the stage area - likely good quality sound as well. The other piece of good news is that flights to Oklahoma City can be less expensive than average; so this may be an ideal spot for the very fiscally conscious.

LA area: The two concerts are spaced far apart (1-3 hours depending on traffic according to Google) and this will also make choosing a hotel an interesting and annoying undertaking. Traffic in LA is awful and you can forget about public transit to reach either of the venues, so renting a car is essential. On the other hand LA is huge and there are many things to do in and around the city and flights are plentiful and reasonably priced to this major metropolis!




So here are my personal 4 options:

1) Saint Paul only.
Pros: Low cost, no car needs to be rented, first show of the tour, not as hot as the other places in July and August
Cons: Only 1 show.

2) Saint Paul & St Louis.

Pros: 2 shows rather than 1, beautiful venues, have been to St Louis before.
Cons: Need 3 separate flights which increases the cost (Home -> Saint Paul -> St Louis -> Home), both venues are similar cathedral types.

3) Oklahoma City only.
Pros: Lowest cost of all the options.
Cons: Nothing much to do in Oklahoma City.

4) The two concerts in the LA area.
Pros: 2 concerts, only 1 round trip flight, I've never been to California in my life so this would be a totally new experience.
Cons: Higher potential costs as LA is much more expensive than the Midwest, lots of travelling or maybe having to switch hotels due to the distance between the venues.

Each of the 4 options has advantages and disadvantages and I'm completely undecided. My gut tells me that options 1 & 2 are the most reasonable, but I am not sure.

[Jay_S]

Thank you Patrick for making this information known to us here and elsewhere. Thank you Surpinto for laying out some options for this upcoming tour. I am undecided at this time but I have narrowed it down to either going to the first 2 concerts or the 2 concerts in California. The weather is sure to be fine in LA and the boys will have several concerts under their belts so they should be in top form. The first 2 concerts feature some amazing architecture from those 2 Cathedrals. Thankfully the concert dates have been made public months ahead of time which will make decision making a bit easier with more time to sort things out.

[justin]

So here are my personal 4 options:
4) The two concerts in the LA area.
Pros: 2 concerts, only 1 round trip flight, I've never been to California in my life so this would be a totally new experience.
Cons: Higher potential costs as LA is much more expensive than the Midwest, lots of travelling or maybe having to switch hotels due to the distance between the venues.

I think this is probably the best choice for you. You get to visit somewhere you've never been to and you can enjoy 2 concerts in a row as well! From my conversations with other fans, it seems the last two concerts are always the best, since Libera would have ironed out any kinks by then.

My plan is to visit St. Paul, Oklahoma City and LA. I'll have to miss the St. Louis concert unfortunately due to some work commitments in NYC. Going from NYC to Oklahoma City seems to be quite a chore - i.e. no direct flights, long layovers etc. It's my first visit to the US so I'm not sure how the transportation situation is like there. I don't have an international driver's license either so driving around isn't an option. I guess I'll have to rely on public transportation or uber/lyft.

[maartendas]

LA area: The two concerts are spaced far apart (1-3 hours depending on traffic according to Google) and this will also make choosing a hotel an interesting and annoying undertaking. Traffic in LA is awful and you can forget about public transit to reach either of the venues, so renting a car is essential.

How about a Libera Dreams carpool team?

[Surpinto]

So here are my personal 4 options:
4) The two concerts in the LA area.
Pros: 2 concerts, only 1 round trip flight, I've never been to California in my life so this would be a totally new experience.
Cons: Higher potential costs as LA is much more expensive than the Midwest, lots of travelling or maybe having to switch hotels due to the distance between the venues.

I think this is probably the best choice for you. You get to visit somewhere you've never been to and you can enjoy 2 concerts in a row as well! From my conversations with other fans, it seems the last two concerts are always the best, since Libera would have ironed out any kinks by then.

Those are all good points. Just to clarify, I've never been to Saint Paul or Oklahoma City either, but LA is an absolutely huge metropolis and there are other tourist things that can go along with visiting there such as visiting national parks, the Griffith Observatory, beaches, tons of museums, etc. The downsides are the costs (LA is not cheap) and travel times since I'm on the east coast. I'll decide eventually.

My plan is to visit St. Paul, Oklahoma City and LA. I'll have to miss the St. Louis concert unfortunately due to some work commitments in NYC. Going from NYC to Oklahoma City seems to be quite a chore - i.e. no direct flights, long layovers etc. It's my first visit to the US so I'm not sure how the transportation situation is like there. I don't have an international driver's license either so driving around isn't an option. I guess I'll have to rely on public transportation or uber/lyft.

Good news! There is a direct flight on United airlines from the New York area to Oklahoma City. You will have to take New Jersey Transit (NJT) from Pennsylvania Station in New York to Newark Airport (EWR) - very easy I promise and not a long trip. You will then fly from EWR to Oklahoma City. There is one direct flight every day at around 8:00 pm. Hope that helps; if not, please let me know and I can assist you further.

As for ground transportation, and as I said in my original post, you will be perfectly fine with uber/lyft and public transit everywhere but in Oklahoma and LA - unless you want to go outside the city centers. Oklahoma City and LA do have public transit, they just don't take you to the venues. So if you're willing to eat those costs (or carpool with Libera fans!) this shouldn't be a problem for tourist travel.

LA area: The two concerts are spaced far apart (1-3 hours depending on traffic according to Google) and this will also make choosing a hotel an interesting and annoying undertaking. Traffic in LA is awful and you can forget about public transit to reach either of the venues, so renting a car is essential.

How about a Libera Dreams carpool team?

Yes, there will definitely have to be carpooling in some of these cities to make the costs reasonable.

[tom413]

Another vote for California. The opening of the Christ Cathedral should make that show a special event and Calvary Westlake's church is as nice a facility as they will play on the whole tour in terms of sound and sight lines negating OKC's one advantage. Plus you've never been there and you get to see two shows instead of one.

[andmar]

It's been 2 years now since I joined the Libera Dreams Forum and four months more since I discovered Libera. What has happened to me since then!!!! I regularly attend concerts in the UK! I was in Moscow! Now I'm planing to go to the US for Libera concerts! It's pure madness, isn't it!!! But believe me - discovering Libera and joining the fan community was one of the best things which happened to me in my whole life.

Thank you Surpinto for your in-depth analysis of pros and cons for all venues! I really love it! Unfortunately, I won't be able to make the whole tour. For sure I'll miss St.Paul. I will be travelling from Poland to LA and then back from there home. Except of the two California shows I'm thinking about at least one more concert. I was thinking about flying from LA to St.Louis, renting a car and then driving to Oklahoma City - hopefully with some other fans willing to share the costs. Though, St.Louis seems to be more interesting than Oklahoma City from what you say, so now I'm thinking about St.Louis only, without renting a car, and staying there for maybe one more day. Unless there is something interesting to visit - from a touristic point of view - on the way to and in Oklahoma City. Can someone give me an advice on that?

Guys, I'm so excited to return to the US (I was there previously in 2004 and 2005) and to meet in person many of you who weren't at the concerts in the UK in the last two years. (and those, who were, of course too! )

P.S. @Surpinto - I fully agree with others here, that option 4 is absolutely the best choice for you! Plus maybe the St.Louis concert as well?

[tom413]

That's exciting news! I look forward to seeing you on tour, though I hope to meet you sooner than that in Arundel.

I can't help with comparing Oklahoma City and St Louis as I've never been to OKC. St Louis is probably more interesting
from a tourism standpoint, but the Cathedral is a tough place to play; the sound quality has been uneven in the
three concerts I've seen there. The OKC church is modern with good sightlines from what I've seen of the pictures
of the inside. However if you really like Cathedral concerts and won't be going to St Paul, then St Louis would be your only chance
to see LIbera in that kind of venue on this tour.

[bachmahlerfan]

Well, I'm really glad to see them put up the tour dates 3.5 months before the first concert. This will give more time to spread the word so we can fill up these large concert venues. I believe that at least four of the venues have a seating capacity exceeding 2000 (The OK City venue supposedly seats about 1600). The newly renovated Christ Cathedral will have a much larger seating capacity than the Arboretum building where Libera performed the last two years. By the way, if you have to decide between OK City and Minneapolis/St. Paul, I would definitely go with the latter. I'm not saying that OK City is a bad place, but I think the Twin Cities are more interesting. Also, the acoustics in the Cathedral of St. Paul are great for a Libera concert. The only issue is that it lacks air conditioning, so if we have hot weather you'll want to bring something to fan yourself with. If you like exploring parks, the Twin Cities area (not just Minneapolis/St. Paul) has great park systems surrounding the rivers, creeks, lakes and forests. If you had to decide between the Twin Cities and St. Louis, that's a tough call. St. Louis is usually hotter in late July than the Twin Cities, but their Cathedral has air conditioning, unlike the Cathedral of St. Paul. It also has some excellent tourist attractions. St. Louis is a city that I would like to explore one day, so I'm not going to discourage anyone from going there.

[hiskeys]

I see that Oklahoma City has Bricktown, an area downtown with lots of places to eat, shop, river taxi rides, putt-putt golf, laser tag, etc.

In fact, the boys might even end up going there at some point, unless they have other things planned.

http://welcometobricktown.com

[filiarheni]

Libera has published the ticket sale starting date for

- Saint Paul, Minnesota and
- Oklahoma City

on their website: 15th April via https://www.ticketsource.us/uslibera.


This is all very exciting, and I wish I could be a part of it. Only, when I read through all what has been said, I get scared about filling the Oklahoma venue. Is there someone who could please attend there?

[bachmahlerfan]

This is all very exciting, and I wish I could be a part of it. Only, when I read through all what has been said, I get scared about filling the Oklahoma venue. Is there someone who could please attend there?

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. If some of the Libera "groupies" skip out on OK City, there are plenty of people around that area to help fill up the venue. Maybe I shouldn't call them groupies, because if they skip even one concert, they really don't deserve that title.

[bachmahlerfan]

I wonder if Libera will sell individual seats at some of the U.S. church venues, or if they will do things the same way as past tours. I found a seating chart for the Cathedral of St. Paul from a recent concert put on by a local choir. I know from personal experience that many of those sections can fit more people than the seating chart would suggest, but I suppose it's better if people aren't crammed into the pews.
https://www.vocalessence.org/wp-content ... t-Paul.pdf

[Surpinto]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and suggestions; I've spent much of the day looking into all options in detail. As usual though, finances and other logistical factors dictate plans rather than the other way around . So I have decided to settle on attending in Saint Paul only. See you all there!