| 3-DAY CENTENNIAL MINI-TOUR | |
| Sunset Ceremony | CENTENNIAL SPECTACULAR |
| State Art Collection | Devon River Parade |
CENTENNIAL SPECTACULAR, BRICKTOWN VERSION. Following the morning’s Statehood Parade and events in the territorial and 1st state capitol, Guthrie (see the November 17 Oklahoman article for more about that), the Ford Center in Oklahoma City hosted a “Centennial Spectacular” replete with appearances by Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, Shirley Jones (of course, Laurey in the movie version of Oklahoma! — she sang Oh What a Beautiful Morning and People Will Say We’re in Love), the Flaming Lips, All American Rejects, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks (who didn’t sing), the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Canterbury Choral Choir, Leona Mitchell, Shayna Steele, and others. See this November 17 Oklahoman article for more about the Ford Center events. The article notes that a large stage, topped with a huge state seal, occupied the entire south end of the Ford Center, and that three “giant” screens above the stage showed video birthday cards from state stars who couldn’t be there in person. I’ve added several actual videos at the end of this article.
But, tickets for this event have been sold out for quite a while … I had none … what to do, where to go? Not a problem …
Bricktown Ballpark provided the place and a free one at that. No, you didn’t get the live performances, only a simulcast broadcast on the video display down the 3rd base line. But, hey, it was free so who’s to complain? The Oklahoman said that an overflow crowd attended at the ballpark, but that’s not true. A good crowd, yes, “standing room only,” no. We picked up our tickets at the ballpark ticket office on Friday morning and it’s true that only “standing room only” tickets remained … but when we arrived, there were plenty of seats available so apparently a lot of the distributed tickets did not get used.
Here are a few pics of the crowd …
Looking Southeast Along 3rd Base Line
Looking Northwest Along 3rd Base Line
Looking West Showing the “Tube” Snow Slope for “Downtown In December”
On 3rd Base Line Looking At the Video Display
As you can see, the display looked small from a distance
The pics I took of the display didn’t turn out well —
They appeared much better than those shown below,
even though smallish from the long distance
Strolling the concourse gave a sense of history …
Several bands played after the Ford Center adjourned …
too many if one was just hanging around for the fireworks …
There was plenty of time to walk around the ballpark for some views …
Finally, around 10:45 p.m. or so, the fireworks began
Click the “Play” button to watch the fireworks
CENTENNIAL SPECTACULAR VIDEOS. With a BIG Doug Dawg thanks to BPOETA, here are some videos from the event:
Carrie Underwood (thanks to VinmanCfans3
Native & American Fancy Dancers and Flying Eagle
Toby Keith
The Flaming Lips
All American Rejects
Vince Gill: Oklahoma Rising
Finale