It’s not hard to get “in the mood” in Chattanooga for Valentine’s weekend. Just come to the Tivoli Theater and you’ll start to feel it. And don’t forget your dancing shoes. In retrospect, I wish I’d had mine.
One of Chattanooga’s favorite Valentine’s weekend events is the Big Band Fever show at the Tivoli Theater. The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera’s Big Band puts on a fun show full of swing dancing, big band tunes and lots of energy and hand-clapping. In fact, it’s such a popular event in town that they put on two shows: one on Friday and one on Saturday.
If you aren’t familiar with big band music, a traditional “big band” ensemble has at least 10 musicians with trumpets, trombones, saxophones, drums, double bass and piano. Big band music itself is very upbeat, jazzy and catchy; it became popular in the 1930s and 1940s with the Swing Era. If you’ve heard Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong’s music, then you’ve heard big band.
