Every year, I take my daughter to at least one concert. Over the past few years we've seen Miranda Cosgrove perform. This year, we went to The Great Allentown Fair to see Victoria Justice. (Chances are, if you don't watch Disney Channel or Nickelodeon, you don't know who these people are. That is OK.) For some reason, I expected the fair to be on the smaller side. Boy, was I wrong. There were tons of rides, even more food stands, and even a bunch of sideshow attractions. (My sister paid $1.00 for my daughter and I to see the "world's smallest horse." It was a Shetland Pony.) Both my sister and my daughter got wristbands so they could ride all the rides they wanted to. Unfortunately, spinning rides tend to make me nauseous so I didn't get to ride anything. To be honest, I'm not all that upset about it.

The concert itself was just OK. Max Schneider was the opening act. While he is a very competent singer, he was doing this jump/dance thing that looked weird. It kinda looked like he took dance lessons from some boy bands. Boy band dancing is OK when there is a group dancing. When it's just one guy, it looks goofy. Victoria Justice was a bit more entertaining but she doesn't have the same stage presence that Selena Gomez does. Her part of the concert seemed like a big commercial for her television show (almost every song was from the show) or her new movie (her tour bus was plastered with it) or her charities (there was actually a real commercial for this on the screen while she was changing clothes).

I know that you are probably saying "Hey, this is a concert aimed at pre-teens. What did you expect?" I have now sat through enough of these concerts to know that these performers are capable of more. Selena Gomez's concerts are engaging and fun. Both of the Victoria Justice and Miranda Cosgrove concerts felt like they were just singing at us. (For what it's worth - Gomez is a Disney kid while Justice and Cosgrove are Nickelodeon.) I know that a lot of people write off kids (tween/pre-teen/younger) but there's no reason to treat them like mindless bags of cash. Yes, they will still scream and cheer for their favorite singers either way but try to make it fun for them. They are the next concert-going generation. We don't want to scare them off with bland, boring shows.