These students convinced Kevin Bacon to revisit his Footloose stomping grounds — a Utah high school

Students at Payson High School in Payson, Utah, are bringing home the Bacon — Kevin Bacon, that is. 

The star of the 1984 hit Footloose has agreed to return to the high school where the movie was filmed before the building is torn down after this school year.

“I get speechless every time I think about it. Like, it’s crazy. I don’t even have words to express,” Grade 10 student Lauren Krout told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “I just can’t believe we did it.”

Bacon made the announcement on The Today Show, following a campaign by students at the school, known as Bomont High in the film.

“I’m gonna come. I gotta come … Let’s dance,” Bacon told an assembly of students, via video call, on Friday.

Krout, who had gotten up at 3 a.m. to go to the assembly, couldn’t believe it.

“When he said it, me and a couple of other girls just started crying. It, like, does not feel real,” she said. 

Bacon to Payson

The students at Payson High School pulled out all the stops to convince the movie star to return to the school. 

For the 40th anniversary of the film, the school put on Footloose: The Musical. The video production team at the school has been remaking scenes from the movie. And students took to learning dance moves from the movie. 

“The whole entire school year has just [revolved] around Footloose,” Krout said.

Students have tried to make a similar pitch in the past. They lobbied Bacon to visit for the 25th anniversary of the film, with no success. 

But this year there was some urgency. Next year, the students will move into a new school, leaving the old halls, once danced through by Kevin Bacon, behind.

And Bacon didn’t let the students down.

“I’ve been so impressed with everything that’s been going on there with this crazy idea to get me to come back,” Bacon told the students during the assembly. 

“The movie and Payson High School was a big part of my life, and I’ve been amazed at the work that all of you have been putting into this with the musical and the flashmobs and the re-creations and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by me.”

Still resonates

Krout said the story of Footloose and that of the Payson High School students share some similarities. Even though she wasn’t even born when the movie was filmed, it still resonates today, she said. 

In the movie, Ren McCormack, played by Bacon, is a teenager from Chicago who moves to the fictional small town of Bomont. There, he fights to overturn the ban on dancing instituted by a local minister. 

Ren has to fight for what he wants, even though the odds are against them. Krout compares it to the uphill battle they went through to get an A-list movie star to visit their town of just over 22,000.  

She says even though many adults helped along the way, it was the students who made the push. 

“I think it’s so relevant. Like, me and my friends have been talking about it. I think as high schoolers, especially teenagers, were ignored a lot,” said Krout. 

“Teenagers deserve to be heard and they have things to say. And there’s power in numbers and there’s power in kids … I think everybody can relate to just not being heard by adults because we’re kids.”

Even though the students will be moving out of the old grounds of what was Bomont High School, the memories will be going with them. Krout says they plan to move Ren McCormack’s locker, and the tribute to Bacon and the character, to the new school. 

Bacon won’t be at the actual prom, but he will be there the day of hosting a fundraiser for his charity Six Degrees, which raises money and gives exposure to other charities in the United States. He will meet the students who have been workin’ so hard for his attention.

“I think it’s just going to be like a really cool moment to meet each other and be like, ‘We’ve been working so hard to get you and you’re finally here,'” said Krout.