27. April 2025
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Weird Al & Grass Court Tennis 2019 (Preview)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

After I did my very first trip report on Flyctory.com about following Weird Al Yankovic on his “Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour” in 2018, I decided to do this travel diary format again for following him on “Strings Attached” 2019. What a difference in concept of the two tours: while the 2018 tour had daily alternating setlists with a focus on not-that-frequently played songs, Weird Al did it posh this year: Al and the band were supported by an orchestra in each show. However, the orchestras are local, so that they do not travel and Yankovic is backed by different people every day (apart from his long-year buddies Ruben Valtierra, Jim Kimo West, Stephen Jay and Jon Bermuda Schwarz, of course).

I will fly over to the States twice for that tour. This trip report just features my visit to two New England concerts, Gilford NH and Mashantucket CT. I did have tickets for a Boston show as well, but it would have increased my travel costs due to high priced hotel and unfortunate flight prices by over 800 Euro – funds, I decided to put into a show in late August in Indianapolis, where I will see the guys again. This gave some opportunity to strike one item off the bucket list, visiting the semifinal (and induction) day at the Hall of Fame Tennis Open at Newport, Rhode Island, one of the most traditional tournaments on the ATP Tennis Tour calendar. This is my second trip report in 2019 after reporting from my trip to CMA Fest in Nashville.

 

Weird Al & Tennis 2019 – My Trip

Composing a reasonable trip was quite a challenge. These are the waypoints I finally chose for my travel.

The most straightforward airport would have been Boston to fly in – however, there were no sensible flights at the time of booking. Finally, I went for this World Traveller Plus / Premium Economy ticket starting at Luxembourg Airport.

Date Flight from to
17.07.2019 BA 417 Luxembourg LUX London LHR (T3)
17.07.2019 BA 115 London LHR New York JFK
21.07.2019 BA 1511 New York JFK London LHR (T3)
22.07.2019 BA 416 London LHR (T3) Luxembourg (LUX)

 

Weird Al & Tennis 2019 – Hotels

I hoped to have one hotel for the hotel trip. Unfortunately, both, the Foxwood Casino hotels as well as the Hilton Garden Inn Preston I chose for the first three nights were too expansive over the weekend. I decided to choose a hotel for the final night which is not too far away from Newport:

 

Weird Al & Tennis 2019 – Day by Day

Here are the links to the overview posting and daily entries of this trip report:

 

Trip Reports

Here are all (other) Trip Report postings:

 

Flyctory.com about Weird Al Yankovic

Here are all postings related to Weird Al Yankovic:

 

Title picture: Artist material

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