Putting together a spectacular that includes hundreds of performers, a helicopter, six skydivers and thousands of dollars of fireworks isn't easy, and neither is holding off a rainstorm.
Organizers of the Stadium of Fire, the crowning event of America's Freedom Festival at Provo, managed to do both Thursday night as 50,000 watched a show that celebrated America's independence while commemorating Utah's statehood at the same time.Nearly as amazing as the choreography of the show was the timing of the heavy rainstorm that threatened to douse the stadium's fire all evening, but began falling just before 11 p.m., only minutes before the conclusion of the program. The crowd at Cougar Stadium saw 99 percent of the show before being chased out of their seats by wind and water.
The Stadium of Fire this year set out to celebrate "100 Years Under the Stars and Stripes." With the statehood centennial in mind, organizers created a program featuring some of the unique and incredible talent Utah has produced.
Utah native Donny Osmond provided early theatrics by hanging from a helicopter above the stadium as he sang Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.," with a Utah twist.
Part of the lyrics Osmond belted out while flying overhead were: "I left 10 years ago and traveled state to state and show to show. I went north, south, east and west, but I found Utah is the best."
Osmond demonstrated his versatility by performing in rapid succession recent hits like "Soldier of Love" and "Sacred Emotion" followed by older songs like "Go Away Little Girl." Osmond took the audience on a virtual trip down memory lane as he recounted the different stages of his 34-year music career from singing with his brothers as a youngster to starring in the "Donny and Marie Show" as a teenager to currently being cast as Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."
Osmond performed one number from that musical, which he is now performing in Boston, and gave the crowd a glimpse of what he said may be in his future when he sang two numbers from "Phantom of the Opera."
Donny's sister and one-time singing partner, Marie, made a brief impromptu appearance on stage to reminisce and show the audience she's still "a little bit country."
The Stadium of Fire's centennial celebration consisted largely of a series of musical numbers set to fireworks and illustrated by lighted caricatures in the bleachers at the south end of the stadium. The songs were taken from the centennial program performed by schoolchildren across the state this year, "Utah . . . This is the Place."
That part of the program reminded the audience that the year of America's independence was the same year two Franciscan priests, Dominguez and Escalante, made their way down Spanish Fork Canyon and entered Utah Valley. Other events in Utah's history featured in the segment were the arrival of Mormon pioneers in 1847 and the joining of the rails at Promontory Point in 1869.
Salt Lake's Calvary Baptist Choir injected energy into the crowd at the beginning of the show with four rousing numbers, including "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Utah Emmy Award winner Kurt Bestor also performed a couple of musical numbers.
The show opened with six skydivers from Cedar Valley's SkyDive U making their grand entrances from the air, which was followed by Bestor singing the national anthem. Precisely as he finished the song, four F-16s from Hill Air Force Base buzzed the stadium.
At one point in the show, the narrator said, "Utah is its people - all of us together." The program tried to showcase the state and its people by stressing the diversity of people present at the statehood celebration 100 years ago, and by allowing contemporary Utahns to display their abilities.
Two connected half-pipes constructed in front of the main performing stage were all five young Utah men needed to show what they could do on wheels. Two in-line skaters, Tyler Carlton, 18, Orem, and Jaren Grob, 14, Orem, performed some difficult stunts and were joined on the ramps by a skateboarder and two extreme bikers. The team of high fliers was put together by biker John Bethers, 21, who operates a skate park in Provo called the "Lumberyard."