A beautiful nostalgia trip, but...
by Martha on 19/02/2025Rating: 4 out of 5My partner and I attended the Avatar: The Last Airbender concert at Swansea Arena in February. It was a truly beautiful concert and such an emotional trip down memory lane. We laughed, cried and reminisced our way through all of our favourite moments of the series - the music, dialogue and animated scenery were blended seamlessly and made for a very memorable experience. However - we were a little bit disappointed that the orchestra we were expecting to see was quite small at around 12 musicians and a few vocalists. In addition to this - most of the eastern instruments were unfortunately not played live, but prerecorded on a backing track (with the exception of a Pipa and a woodwind instrument which were played beautifully live on stage). Don't get me wrong - the musicians on stage were incredible and truly impressive, but at £70 a ticket we were hoping to see a fuller orchestra with more of the Eastern instruments that are so integral to the musical score actually played live. I'm not sure if this smaller ensemble was unique to the concert we attended, as I've seen footage of the same concert at other venues which had a fuller orchestra. Despite the above, it was still a wonderful evening and nostalgia trip. A special shoutout to the conductor - who practically levitated off of the stage with enthusiasm at many points in the show - his joy was absolutely infectious and made the experience even more enjoyable!