The location for the Schwetzingen concert was in a corner of the big park area surrounding the Schwetzingen Palace. It was possible to buy a ticket to see the palace gardens and to walk in the park and when I did that day before the gig I was astonished by the size and the beauty of the place. I only hoped Mika would have time to realise in what a gorgeous location he was supposed to perform. It’s not something we know will always happen. Sometimes his schedules are so busy he arrives just a moment before the show starts when it’s possibly dark already and maybe sees only the backstage area and nothing around it. This time it was different. The gig started when it was still daylight and Mika could see the gardens from his backstage and he was obviously impressed by the place and even posted about it on his social media. This is something I hope every time when we are in a particularly beautiful place, that he has a moment to appreciate where he is. 

He talked more about the location when the gig started and mentioned it as one of the most beautiful venues they had ever performed. During Origin he continued with a reference to Alice in Wonderland: “Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we are in the garden of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland” then asking “who is the Rabbit” (pointing Max), “who is the Madhatter (taking the role for himself) and “who is the Cat” (pointing Clement). As usually, “love” was the first word to teach to the audience. During Lollipop - the second word - he said the word in several languages to learn where people came from and quite a few came from France which wasn’t a surprise the French border being that close. It was good to hear Mika speaking German and English after not seeing many gigs there in the past years (and to be able to understand him) but it was also good to hear many languages from the audience because Mika’s music is supposed to make the world more united and to bring people together, that’s simply a part of who he is. 

As appropriate for the venue the gig started with flowers and Mika wearing his “garden outfit”, the white suit with strong coloured flowers. During the first song he also got some pink hydrangeas from the audience and of course during Happy Ending we saw the pretty colourful flowers flowing over the piano. For Big Girl and Underwater he changed for his cheerful yellow suit with a plain yellow jacket and striped wide pants which I really like, they give old-fashioned, gentleman style vibes and make me think of old films. He went to walk around the audience and he made the crowd sing the usual style making gestures like rocking a baby to guide people sing gently and then raised the imaginary baby high (“it’s the Lion King”) and kept referring to the beautiful location asking people to sing like they own the palace and the garden. 

During Relax we saw the silver glittery suit and he added some air piano playing teasing Alban, the keyboardist, at the same time. Before singing Good Guys he asked a beer like he did also in Bonn and this time he invited the lady bringing it on stage with him. Before Popular he talked about recording the song and the meaning of it and also asked if anyone had ever felt like nothing or a total loser and then asked people who had raised their hands to join the song as loudly as they can. The gig was unusually sweaty and at some point of the song he took off his silvery jacket so we could see the black tank top underneath and he looked really good in it and I realised we rarely see the outfit that way and also that we rarely see him in black shirts and I wondered why because they look so stylish. 

It was raining heavily earlier during the day and the weather forecast had actually predicted even big thunderstorms and there was a small threat of cancelling the gig in the air. However, when it was time for the gig the weather was actually very nice and we all felt lucky. During Happy Ending it finally started to rain and after noticing it Mika came down at the barrier in front of the crowd to show solidarity and the end of the gig it was raining quite strongly and we were all wet when we left the venue but at this point it really didn’t matter any more, the gig was successfully over. Schwetzingen was very lucky indeed.