Friday night lights wow 4th Fest crowd

By Mike Joseph

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Central Pennsylvania 4th Fest lit up the State College sky in red, white and blue Friday night in a spectacular 45-minute show that event planners said may have played to a record crowd.

The show, choreographed to musical selections, mixed a strong military theme with well-cast oldies. It moved from an opening American Flag celebration accompanied by the “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Retreat” and “Taps” that led to the livelier “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”

Then it was off to the races. The Beach Boys’ 1963 classic “Surfin’ USA” played its full length as a surfer outlined by fireworks and guided mechanically rode a wave of fireworks across the low sky.

But it was Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1957 rendition of “Great Balls of Fire” — “You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain” — that wowed the crowd. It came midway through the show complete with great balls of fire.

Bernie Keisling, 4th Fest executive director, said “everything indicates” from parking receipts and the like that more than 70,000 people crowded around Beaver Stadium, the Bryce Jordan Center and Medlar Field to watch the fireworks.

That would be a record. Clifford Lutz, assistant Penn State police chief, said the crowd did indeed seem bigger than usual.

And Amanda Scott, of Bellefonte, serving pulled pork sandwiches an hour before the fireworks began, looked at the long line that was waiting to eat and said: “We weren’t nearly this swamped last year. It’s definitely bigger. I think it’s because it’s Friday.”