The Fair Saint Louis Foundation has held a special celebration featuring live music, air shows, and spectacular fireworks displays on the grounds of the 90-acre Jefferson National Expansion Memorial under the iconic Gateway Arch every July 4th holiday since 1981.
Known as “America’s Biggest Birthday Party” and held for three successive nights up through the 4th, this year’s get-together featured the Steve Miller Band, Maroon Five and Montgomery Gentry. Produced by Mike Kociela at Entertainment Saint Louis, St. Louis’ own Stanco Productions handled sound, lights & I-Mag video under the leadership of technical director Sam Wehrmeyer.
“This is a longstanding tradition in St. Louis and I remember going to these 4th of July celebrations as a child,” says Wehrmeyer. “After 9/11, the celebration was moved off its former site for a while, but is now back to its former splendor at the original site under the Arch.
Stanco installed a substantial static/moving light package on a Sam 550 portable stage positioned directly under the St Louis Arch. A three camera I-mag package delivered video imagery to LED screens positioned stage left & right. Wehrmeyer continues. “As with any outdoor event, you have to deal with the elements and unfortunately the Maroon Five show on the 3rd was rained out. Nonetheless the events drew huge crowds.”
The sound system included of two main arrays of 16 Martin Audio W8LC with 8 W8LMs and 2 W8LMD down fill boxes per side for out fills.
In addition to proprietary Stanco stage monitors, the Stanco Audio Crew—Justin Slazas (A1, front of house), Glenn Medlin (system tech), and Demetrius Blanton (monitors) John Turbett (video) ––used Crown amplification, XTA processing and Yamaha PM5D consoles.
According to Wehrmeyer, “In addition to the concert sound a main concern was the ability to cover the expansive arch grounds with quality sound for the massive fireworks display. We needed to cover an immense area. In addition to the Martin Audio arrays, we implemented 32 additional composites flown in a single monolithic delay cluster. The delays blended seamlessly with the main stage Martin arrays.”
“Working with Stanco enabled us to focus on the other elements of the fair and concert series, the Stanco team delivered a seamless product while maintaining flexibility to meet our ever changing needs. The how can I help attitude and advance due diligence created a great partnership,” says Jim Howe, event organizing co-chairman.
“We heard nothing but positive reactions from everyone saying the sound was the best they’ve ever heard it for America’s birthday, and that’s a real tip of the hat to Martin Audio and the W8LC boxes,” concludes Wehrmeyer. “In fact we implemented the W8LC rig again with great success for the follow-up Celebrate St Louis concert series encompassing two consecutive weekends at Soldier’s Memorial featuring Bell Biv Devoe, Gavin Degraw, Keb Mo’ and The Barenaked Ladies.”
