Kevin Bacon returns to ‘Footloose’ high school to mark film’s 40th anniversary

CNN

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Kevin Bacon has delivered on his promise to return to the Utah high school where his iconic 1984 film “Footloose” was filmed.

Bacon appeared at Payson High School on Saturday, months after the school’s students launched the #BacontoPayson social media campaign. As part of the effort, students recreated movie scenes and choreographed videos in hopes of catching the actor’s attention so that he’d appear at the school’s final prom.

Payson High School is set to relocate at the end of the school year.

“When I first heard about this Bacon to Payson thing, I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ But you were all just tireless,” Bacon said in his speech on the school’s football field on Saturday, according to ABC7. “You talked me into it.”

Bacon said he appreciated the student’s commitment.

As part of Payson High School’s effort to get Bacon back on campus, they pledged to create 5,000 essential resource kits to help his Sixdegrees.org foundation, which benefits underserved and under-resourced communities. The organization has a goal of packing and distributing up to 40,000 kits as part of its “Footloose40” initiative.

In his speech on Saturday, Bacon thanked the students for “turning what could be just a movie star coming back to get a pat on the back into something really positive.”

Bacon was awarded with an honorary Payson High School diploma, posed for photos with students and even swung by his locker during his visit, according to a video posted to Bacon’s Instagram Stories on Saturday.

“Footloose” was released in 1984 and starred Bacon as a teenager who moves to a small town that forbids dancing, a measure he works to overturn. The movie culminates at a prom, which after 40 years is apparently still the place to get footloose.

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