The excitement at Utah’s Payson High School was palpable. If you asked students they were “mega-excited” or “freaking out.” Others said it was “insane.”
That’s because Kevin Bacon announced he is returning to the school for prom day in April. A part of his 1984 movie, “Footloose” was filmed there, and this is the 40th anniversary of the film.
“I'm exhausted. I've been up all night long. I think I got an hour and a half of sleep,” said Student Body President Rubie Raff.
The school is being torn down at the end of the next school year. So for a while now, students and faculty have been trying to bring home the Bacon.
Raff and her fellow classmates have known about the visit for a few weeks, but they kept it a secret. Bacon made the announcement official, and public, on NBC’s TODAY Show at 6:30 a.m. on Friday, March 22.
“The movie and Payson High School was a big part of my life. I'm gonna come, I’ve gotta come,” Bacon said.
After that, a crowd of about 1,300 students gathered in the gym since 4:45 am erupted into cheers.
“The turnout that we had this morning is mind blowing. It's insane,” Raff said.
A few even dressed head-to-toe in bacon costumes. Like, the kind of bacon you eat.
But it didn’t happen without a lot of work – the plan to bring Bacon back has been in motion for a couple of years.
“I feel like, honestly, just so relieved that all of our hard work just finally paid off, and we actually did it when no one else thought we could,” Raff said. “We can kind of just throw it in their faces now, like, haha, we did it.”
They had to do “everything” to get Footloose’s Ren McCormack back in the building. The whole school year, all the events have been Footloose-themed: Footloose school musical, Footloose movie stadium night and a Mr. Bacon contest. Plus the expected social push by “posting on TikTok and Instagram and with the hashtag #BaconToPayson and just hoping that Kevin would see.”
What finally convinced him, Raff thinks, is the work they’ll be doing for the actor’s foundation, sixdegrees.org. On prom day they’ll put together 5,000 resource kits for communities in need on the football field.
When it comes to their community, Student Council Advisor Jenny Staheli said the project has brought everyone together, especially at a time when unity feels hard to find.
“I think that's the reason it's resonated so deeply with people,” she said. “Not just here in Payson or in Utah, but across the country and even the world.”
Staheli said they got calls from Canada and “all kinds of places” when the news broke.
“I think it's really because this is, this is such a feel-good idea that we can all get behind and we can all agree that good things need to happen in the world, and unexpected kindnesses are worth it.”
Principal Jesse Sorenson said it’s brought the students together too. He added that a trip to Payson High isn’t complete without seeing the Kevin Bacon locker.
“My son actually discovered it when he was cleaning out lockers one summer as a summer job,” he said. “And there was a little sticker in there that was all faded that said, ‘Congratulations, you have Kevin Bacon's locker from the film Footloose, 1984.’”
The locker is filled with Footloose pictures and quotes, a pair of cowboy boots, and a commemorative diploma Sorensen said they’ll give to Bacon when he comes.
And there’s a Bible in there with Ecclesiastes 3:4 highlighted in yellow — “A time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
Payson High students will probably be doing a lot of dancing on April 20. And maybe Kevin Bacon will even bust a move.
