Thousands turn out for annual 'Picnic with the POPS' concert celebration

Spectators in need of their annual dose of patriotism flocked to a citywide Fourth of July fireworks show Friday night on the grounds of the Ivy Tech campus.\nAbout 3,000 people tapped their toes, clapped their hands and waved old glory through the summer breeze to patriotic and "distinctly" American tunes provided by the Bloomington POPS Orchestra and Chorus during a six hour plus festival that included picnic baskets, lawn chairs and red, white and blue everything from face paint to beer can cozies. Local AM 1370 WGCL "Bloomington Morning Show" personality Don Pratt hosted the event via the microphone, and "Picnic with the POPS" also featured fiddler and guest conductor John Clair Canfield, soprano Sedalia Brown, harmonicist Mike Runyan, the Rise & Shine Cloggers and U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and Hoosier Vietnam Veteran Sammy L. Davis. \n"I just love to sing with a good group like this because Fourth of July means freedom for the United States," said Jackson County resident Bettye Lou Coller, a POPS Orchestra and Chorus member as her group rehearsed "Battle Hymn of the Republic" before the show. "I wear my American flag pin whenever I can. It's great living in this country."\nPOPS Orchestra and Chorus members led community members in a three hour sing-along that included freedom favorites like "America, My Country Tis of Thee," "God Bless America," "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "America the Beautiful" after a picnic welcome by festival chair Lynn Coyne and Bloomington POPS President Kevin Halloran. \nMonroe County Board of Commissioners President Joyce Poling and City of Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan greeted the crowd after a "Children's Parade" to the organ music performed by Paul Dyer of Dyer Organ Works. Mayor Kruzan inserted a bit of partisan humor during his picnic greeting that resulted in few chuckles.\n"Are you hot enough?" Kruzan asked before leading the crowd in the "Pledge of Allegiance." "The democrats will you (the humidity and heat) is because of the global warming. The republicans will tell you it's because the mayor talks too much." \nFollowing "Presentation of the Colors" by the Indiana National Guard Second Battalion, 150th Artillery Color Guard and a local Boy Scouts troop, POPS Orchestra and Chorus members entertained community members to American folk tunes like "Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee," "Flintstones Meets the Jetsons," "Turkey in the Straw" and "Summertime" by George Gershwin. \nHalloran announced the awards for table decorations during "Star Spangled Spectacular," which included "one stripes section table for eight for the 2007 Picnic with the POPS" prize for the categories of "Best Use of Theme," "Most Patriotic Table" and "Most Neat and Unusual."\n"Most Neat and Unusual" award winner and Bloomington resident Chris Smith, who was joined at table "J17" with friends and family, said his table centerpieces included a 120-layer Lego Statue of Liberty using "onesies and twosies" pieces, and two 3-D puzzles: one of the Chrysler Building and the other of the Empire State Building -- all atop poster-size images of the New Yorker Hotel and Manhattan Island, among others. \nSmith said the Statue of Liberty took 40 to 60 hours to construct using a 120 page manual, the Empire State Building took eight hours per day for 10 days over this past Christmas break and Chrysler Building was "much easier" than both of the above.\nAct two began with "A Tribute to Those Serving and Have Served," in which community members clapped the loudest to the Army theme, followed by an equal hum to the Air Force, Marines and Navy, with the Coast Guard representing the fewest service members. "Picnic with the POPS" concluded with excerpts from the "Overture Solonelle 1812" by Tchaikovsky, with drum beats blasted from Indiana National Guard Artillery Cannons nearby, and community members packed up their picnic baskets after a brief firework display illuminated the Southern Indiana sky.