"Twilights Last Gleaming" Fountain Light Show

This was an amazing event to work on! It was the brain child of my friend Nate Dursteler and put on by the city of Rexburg ID. It was a patriotic light show that happened on 4th of July weekend 2018. Nate asked for my help with the design of the fountain and I did some calculations for of pipe size and the number and diameter of the nozzles.

The real fun began when we started putting it together. We showed up to the park and Nate had somehow gotten all the pipes there in his Jetta. Cutting, fitting and wiring was pretty straight forward. Each jet was controlled by a solenoid. Unfortunately we were all so eager to get it built that no one took any pictures of putting it together.

Once we had the whole thing glued together It was time to go in the water. There was a lady at the park that was very concerned about the ducks for some reason so she sat there watching us the whole time to "protect the ducks". I got in the water and It was much grosser than I had expected. The mud was super thick so we had to drive the 2x4s several feet in to keep the fountain in place. At some point Nate went and got a small inflatable boat so we could make adjustments without anyone having to get back in the water.

The fountain was fed by a gas powered irrigation pump and the jets were controlled by sprinkler solenoids so they could be turned on and off individually. After the fountain was set up, Nate along with the sound guy and some others set up the lights, speakers, and the control booth behind on a little peninsula that jutted out into the pond. They had it under control so I went to help Emily who was in charge of the event logistics. There were some technical difficulties on the first night, but after that there were so many people that wanted to see it that we actually added another night to the schedule.

Along with helping to build the fountain I was also tasked with recording it the show, so I set up my camera on the top of the bleachers and let it record while I flew the drone. Over a couple of shows I got enough angles to put together this video. I think it turned out amazingly! Enjoy!