Clay at the Narina

First of all, don't pronounce it "Dorton Arena." Nobody I know pronounces it "Dorton Arena." Instead, it's Dort Narina. Actually for people who see it the first time, it's usually "What the heck is that?"

Dorton Arena was built in 1952 and is decidedly odd-looking; it's saddle shaped, with the world's first cable-supported roof system. (You can get more information about the construction along with some pictures at http://www.ncstatefair.org/dortonhistory.htm and a good pictures of the exterior at http://www.ncstatefair.org/dorton.htm.) When you're going down the beltline you can see it standing out over the fairgrounds, its swooping shape unmistakable.

Dorton Arena has been the venue for all kinds of things over the years. As a kid I saw countless circuses there; it was once the home arena for a hockey team, the Raleigh IceCaps, and far more briefly a basketball team (the Raleigh Bullfrogs). There was WCW wrestling at the arena and lots of concerts -- a friend of mine saw Janis Joplin there. But nowadays many events take place at much larger RBC Center, just down the road.

But there's still plenty of stuff going on at Dorton Arena. Shows and events take place during the year, and concerts play every night during the fair. This year, Clay Aiken rocked the arena twice on Monday.

It was easy to tell he was there without the countless announcements and the signs and whatnot. First of all there were police everywhere. There are a couple of truck entrances for setting up, one on each side of the arena, and there were police on each site. Second there were people selling tickets out front. There are rarely tickets for sale like that -- the arena is actually pretty big.

There were two concerts for Clay Aiken. At first there was one, but it sold out in less than fifteen minutes. So the Fair people added another one, but that one sold out in less than fifteen minutes. There was massive Claymania going on at the fairgrounds -- people had t-shirts, hats, jackets -- one lady had Clay Aiken pictures pinned all over her clothes. And she carried a sign.

I stood and watched all the Clay people rushing into the arena for a while, then decided to go down and get some food. I was standing at a concession booth, probably about a hundred years away, and I heard this several-thousand-voiced shriek from the Arena. "Clay -- woooooooooooooooo!" It wasn't too big a surprise to learn that 60,296 people had come to the Fair on Monday; it sounded like they were all in that arena.

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