Actor Kevin Bacon has returned to the US high school where his movie Footloose was filmed more than 40 years ago.
The 65-year-old visited Payson High School in the state of Utah to greet students following a years-long campaign which started on social media under the hashtag #BaconToPayson.
According to news reports last month, the school had gone Footloose-crazy – holding a Footloose movie night, staging a Footloose musical, renaming the annual Mr Payson pageant after the actor, and even holding a competition for essays persuading Bacon to visit.
The mission turned into a community-wide campaign to partner with the actor’s charity, with students helping to put together 5,000 care packages for SixDegrees.
And on Saturday, the actor came to help about 700 students and 300 community members fill the care packages.
“You talked me into it,” he said to the students.
“It’s great to see that kind of commitment to anything.
“I also think that it’s amazing to see the power that this movie has had to bring people together.”
In March, when he accepted the invitation to visit, he said: “I have been so impressed with everything that has been going on there with this crazy idea to get me back, so thank you, thank you, and I’m gonna come. I gotta come.”
In Footloose, Bacon played a teenager from Chicago who moved to a small town and fought its ban on dancing.
The town of Payson, about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City, was the film’s setting.
Some of its 21,000 residents remember being extras and can point out parts of the town used in the film.
At the end of the day, Payson High School students held their prom.
It is likely to be the last prom at the school before its outdated buildings are torn down next year.
The theme of the prom? Footloose, of course.
