Music, picnics highlight July 4 celebrations

By Town Crier Staff,

From symphony music at Shoreline to fun and games at Shoup park, Los Altos residents have plenty of options for Independence Day this Friday.

For nearly two decades, the Independence Day celebration at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View has been the quintessential Fourth of July bash for thousands of local residents.

Every year, the stirring sounds of the San Francisco Symphony combine with a sky-scorching fireworks display to serve up a prime venue for people to come together and salute the nation.

Yet, for the behind-the-scenes team that breathes life into the patriotic event each summer, July Fourth isn’t so much of a celebration as it is an annual test.

“Every year we want to make this show bigger and better,” said Mick Brigden, the show’s producer the last five years. “The bar gets raised higher each time, and we want to knock the audience’s socks off every summer.”

This time around, the 17th annual Independence Day celebration aims to score another home run under the theme “Stars, Stripes and Spurs,” which waves the flag at the American West. The San Francisco Symphony will return with an all-American program, featuring the Overture to “Oklahoma” and music from American composers Gershwin, Copland, Rodgers and John Williams.

As in years past, the celebration kicks off at 5 p.m., Friday, with pre-concert festivities ranging

from jugglers to face painting. The night will climax around 10 p.m. with a wake-the-gods fireworks show set to symphonic marches and anthems.

Though the concert portion of the festival spans just over two hours, it takes about 10 months of pre-production every year to bring the show to life.

“We’ll start working on next year’s show about a month after this one,” Brigden said. “This isn’t something that’s just thrown together.”

The planning stage begins in September, when Brigden meets with San Francisco Symphony artistic directors Joyce Wessling and John Keesler to brainstorm prospective themes. Once the trio decides on a concept, the symphony starts to put the vision to music.

The completed set list is given to fireworks operator Dan Nitzan, who, with his company Pyro Spectaculars, is given the challenge of choreographing the rocket launching to the show’s explosive musical finale.

“The symphony sticks to the music note for note,” said Nitzan, who has been the fireworks operator all 17 years. “I put those notes into a story line and turn the fireworks into a visual symphony.”

In order to conduct his “visual symphony,” Nitzan and a crew of about 10 set up around 300 cannons on Shoreline Golf Course, pre-loaded with shells used to illustrate the various notes of the music.

“Just like with the music, we try to play with the audience’s head,” Nitzan said. “You tease them a little bit, then give them a big finale. We like to put them in a moment.”

One of the biggest hurdles in keeping the fireworks in sync with the music is anticipating the three to five-second launch time it takes for the shell to go from the gun to popping in the sky, Nitzan said.

Another more recent concern for both Nitzan and the rest of the Shoreline team is the sluggish economy. Over the past five years, ticket sales have gone down and insurance costs have gone up.

“It’s getting harder to put this show on every year,” Nitzan said. “It seems that there always more permits to obtain and paperwork to fill out each summer.”

Regarding attendance, Brigden noted, “It’s true that we’re not seeing the same numbers as five years ago, but we don’t consider it a significant loss. We’re still seeing respectable numbers.”

Brigden said he expects around 10,000 people this Friday based on advance ticket sales and last year’s turnout. Still, whether they’re playing to a packed house or not, one motivation makes it all worthwhile, according to Nitzan.

“We truly have the greatest job in the world,” he said. “How many people can say they get to entertain a city? Not many, but we get to.”

Tickets for the 17th annual Independence Day Celebration at Shoreline Amphitheatre are $28.25 reserved, $23.25 lawn, $15.25 children 12 and under. For more information, call Shoreline at 967-3000.

A traditional Independence Day celebration is scheduled 10:30 a.m, Friday in Shoup Park in Los Altos.Ye Olde Towne Band will kick off the festivities followed by speeches from local veterans about the meaning of Independence Day.

Keynote speaker is Tom Campbell, former California state senator and present dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Children’s entertainment and old-fashioned games will be held noon to 2 p.m., after the speeches.

The Glorious Fourth committee has planned a down-home type of event that features hot dogs, games, music, children’s entertainment and old-fashioned picnic games.

The centerpiece for Glorious Fourth celebrations in Shoup Park is the bronze statue called “Cradle of Liberty,” created by Los Altos artist R.J. Truman and dedicated July 4, 2000. The memorial is the realization of a dream by two Los Altos veterans, Jay Brandon and Bill Henderson.

Kim Fielding and Dina Scheel, co-chairpersons of Glorious Fourth, represent the Los Altos Boy and Girl Scouts. They are looking forward toward a hometown event that features local residents Sam Harding dressing up as Uncle Sam and Boo Bue, master of ceremonies, making his once-a-year appearance as a redcoat.

“In the past, we have focused on the veterans, and it doesn’t reach our young kids — we want to include them,” Fielding said. “There’s a movie called ‘Sandlot’ about kids playing baseball in the 1950s, and they have a good old-fashioned picnic on July 4 at the end of the movie. We would like to duplicate that here.”

Scheel said the Girl Scouts of Troop 265 will help with the Pledge of Allegiance, and both Boy and Girl Scout troops will bring in the colors.

“The girls from Troop 90 will be doing ‘crazy hair’ and face painting for the younger kids,” Scheel said.

Independence Day celebrations in Los Altos go back a long way. Old-time residents say they started in the mid-1980s at Covington. The low-key event began when “Safe and Sane” fireworks were no longer available for sale. Residents wanted something for the community that was free of fireworks.

“We dunked the mayor, some city staff and a few recreation commissioners in a water tub,” said Roy Lave, former Los Altos mayor. “We had egg toss and water balloon tosses, sack races, pickup softball games, and the pool was open for free swimming.”

Other activities were country western line dancing, face painting, and jugglers teaching the kids. The last time the July Fourth event took place at Covington was in 1994.

Independence Day commemorates the birthday of the United States, the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. The declaration was crafted by Thomas Jefferson, and one of the signatories was John Adams, first vice president and second president of the United States.

In a letter to his wife, Adams wrote: “I believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as a great anniversary festival. It ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade with games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”

Since 1777, communities have organized daylong picnics with favorite foods, such as hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans and all the fixings.

Although it waned for a time, patriotism has made a strong comeback since 9/11. Los Altos resident Alex Myers commented that once the terrorists hit New York City, he became patriotic for a reason.

Food available for sale at the Glorious Fourth event will include hot dogs, watermelon, sodas and ice cream, served by volunteers.

Shoup Park is located at 400 University Ave., Los Altos.