The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance: Heading East to Indiana – the Fort Wayne show (Ep. 3)

The band had an off-day on 14th October 2026, so that the trip to the second concert of my The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance trip was rather relaxed. I also urgently needed some time to rest before enjoying the concert at Fort Wayne in Indiana. Hope you like the third part of my trip report.

 

Wednesday, 14th October 2026

Driving… and some historic planes

The band had a transfer day, so that I had a rather relaxed time in waking up and kicking off the day. The breakfast at the Staybridge Suites Peoria-Downtown was really nice and thus I kicked off my trip East at some 9:30 in the morning. The first hour of the trip towards Fort Wayne on Indiana was on proper Interstates, while most of the 280 miles trip East was on normal highways crossing the Illinois and Indiana countryside. At the beginning, I also had a short section in parallel to the famous Route 66. A rather less eventful day, on which my only proper stop was at the Grissom Air Museum in Peru, Indiana, at the edge of an army facility. A nice, but very friendly and interesting place.

Due to the time difference between Illinois and most parts of Indiana, it took me quite long and I arrived in Fort Wayne at around 17:00. The Holiday Inn Purdue – Fort Wayne is the only stay on my trip where I have two nights. Some relaxation was urgently needed, as there was quite a lot of driving ahead of me. I had an Uber Eats Indian dish – the first time having proper food instead of junk meals from fast food chains and gas stations.  Nonetheless, there was quite a lot of stuff to do (apart from relaxing), including doing some preparations for the website and for the next days. At 2:00 local time, it was finally time to sleep.

 

Thursday, 15th October 2026

Preparation and Relax Day

After that much of driving, I wanted to have a more relaxing day. There was quite a backlog on Flyctory.com stuff, though, so that I did not wake up that late and did some things, including the first two episodes of this trip report. Still, it felt relaxing to have a day without driving. After that, I had some preparations for the next day. Buying some food, fueling up the car and having a bite before the show – this time it was Chipotle. I also tried to find out how to get over the street between the Holiday Inn Purdue Fort Wayne I stayed in and the arena Weird Al was going to play on the evening. Really weird that they “missed” pedestrian lights to cross the road on the most straight-forward spot. I later decided to rush over the speed.

 

A Great Show in Fort Wayne

The experience at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne was quite different compared to Peoria two days before. The 13,000 seat venue was not at all sold out, but the crowd felt really enthusiastic. I had a bit of issues with security bringing my pocket camera with me (as I did all of my shows before…), but got it sorted out. Unfortunately, my health situation was not good at all. But sitting in the arena and cheering for Puddles Pity Party and Weird Al and the band worked well. Already the Puddles Pity Party support felt promising – also because the two spectators, the kid doing a guitar and the involuntary eating challenge, worked out well. I also loved that so many friends of mine were at the venue. We had some time together before the show. Look forward to seeing some of them at the remaining shows as well.

My seat was in front row, more or less in front of Stephen – thanks so much for welcoming me, buddy! The band did another great job. It is especially fun to see all the stuff the three ladies are doing in the back of the stage. In general, I loved interacting with them during the show. The cover song this time was Happy together (orig. by The Turtles). This also meant that Puddles was back on stage during the Al set. Unfortunately, security did not allow you to wait for the artists on premise. Also knowing that the next day will be a 4:30 morning drive to Green Bay, I did not wait to long, chatting to a nice person before. Always great connecting to the community.

 

The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – The Episodes

I split my trip report in five sections (and an introduction post). The first section is about my experience in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. then, there is more or less one episode per concert I visited:

• The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – Introduction
• The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – from Rheinland to Rhinelander
• The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – Heading South – the Peoria Show
• The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – Heading East to Indiana – the Fort Wayne show
• The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – Going back to Wisconsin – Green Bay
• The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – Farewell at Milwaukee
• The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – Going Home and Reprise

 

Aviation Museums

Here are all postings about museums concentrating on aviation:

 

My Looking Back To… Concert Reports

The Looking Back To… concert reports have been taken with amateur equipment as ordinary spectator, publishing in Pictured Story format: