When I heard that the ICF World Championships for kayak and canoe were coming to Oklahoma City two years before the Olympics, I thought that was a perfect opportunity to highlight what is great about our city and state. If we could make those 300 athletes and coaches fall in love, we could send them back to their home countries as outspoken advocates for Oklahoma City.
Unsolicited, I wrote a fifteen-minute script for the Opening Ceremony for the World Championships. It started at the First Americans Museum with a Native American drum circle, ceremonial dancers, and 39 canoers representing each of the tribes heading down the Oklahoma River to Riversport OKC. As they crossed under the interstate bridge, one thousand drones would emerge and transform into a giant canoe in the sky. The Flaming Lips would play atop the bridge.
Once they landed at Riversport, flaming torches would be passed to local dignitaries like NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander and Olympic Champions Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci. Then a Devon Boat would come out from under the bridge to present the National Anthem featuring Oklahoma’s Three Tenors: Blake Shelton, Vince Gill, and Garth Brooks.
I was channeling my inner Lee Allen Smith. Fireworks. Jet flyovers. Parachuters. Crowd goes wild. Let the World Championships begin.
Super excited, I emailed the script to Riverport founder Mike Knopp. I knew Mike was going to be involved in everything. He loved the idea. He wasn’t sure about the funding. Instead, he asked me to come on board as Entertainment Chair and help them figure it out.
I created a committee. We met and brainstormed for a few months. We knew we needed to make the athletes feel at home and have a good time. We knew we wanted to highlight as many local artists, musicians, and performers as possible. So, we split into two groups: athlete engagement and performance.
Athlete Engagement was led by Krystal Yoseph and Monty Milburn with Brent Johnson, Brenda Hernandez, Melissa Scarmucci, Brian Bogert, Jean Folger, Tim Troilo, Matthew Woodson, and Denise Duong.
A month ago, they sent the athletes and coaches videos of great attractions, maps of the different districts, restaurant discounts, and bar suggestions. This week, they launched daily free excursions to museums, galleries, and public art tours and gatherings at local bars and restaurants at night. And they gave each visitor a deck of cards featuring art from local artists Ebony Iman Dallas, Tanner Muse, Michah Wesley and Denise Duong, who came up with the idea.
This Saturday, July 18, at 7:00pm, we will kick off a full week of live music and dance performances at Riversport with an Opening Ceremony featuring ten awesome bands and dance companies and 300 athletes and coaches from 60 different countries. The show is free and open to the public.
Next week, we will host two bands every day at lunch with a closing ceremony next Saturday, July 25. Each day, we will offer one free stage outside the venue by the Route 66 Car Exhibition programmed by Noah Engh and one inside the venue managed by Cooper Anderson.
On the performance side I am co-producing the Opening and Closing Ceremonies with Amy Young and Hui Cha Poos. Our fantastic team includes Rachel Cannon, Paige Shepherd, Salvidor Ontiveros, Kindt Steven Myers, and Jabee Williams.
Please come to the free Opening Ceremony on Saturday at 7:00pm. Then come back next week, July 20-26, and show these 300 athletes and coaches from around the world as much love and support as you can. This is our first impression to the athletes coming for the Olympics in two years. Let’s make it amazing.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source okcfriday.com ’
