People are all a buzz about the recent story out of St. George where a local dance was shut down by the cops. It made NATIONAL news! I’m pretty sure Keven Bacon has tweeted about it by now! But believe it or not, this story actually DOES surprise me. Before.Before I was X96’s Mid-Day superstar, I was a morning show host in St. George. I was a well known cat! For ten years I did the “Jon Smith Show”, I was given the key to the city TWICE, they even declared a “Jon Smith Day” in the city! ( Only because I asked them to, but shhh).
Usually this sort of thing is reserved for realtors.
But even with local fame and fortune, I would not dare shake my booty in Washington County. At least not within city limits, unless I had a permit. Footloose jokes aside, there is no actual LAW against dancing in the city. But the people on the city council, who can be real a**holes when it comes to gettin’ jiggy with it, will often go out of their way to shut dances down. In this case, a guy by the name of Jared Keddington was holding a party at a place called Fiesta Fun. Which is a well known place in the STG because well.. It’s a small city and there’s not a lot to do there if you’re not into riding bikes or being an old coot. So a heap of college kids bought tickets to a private party, at a private business. Only to have the fuzz show up and forbid them from dancing. Think about that for a moment. There were no drugs. No booze. just kids riding go carts and busting an assorted move.
Put your hands in the AYAAAAAAA!
In cities across the nation we are dealing with riots, corruption, and you know, actual crime. Yet, here we are in the 21st century fighting the same fight that they were fighting in the movie.. Swing Kids. (Ha! You thought I was going to make another Footloose crack). So why is this a big deal? There HAS to be more to this story.
In the past few years, I’ve seen Mackelmore, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Aquabats, and Reel Big Fish roll through town. All had dancing involved. When Yo-Gabba Gabba hit the stage at The Electric Theater on St. George’s historic Main Street. Nobody seemed to care when 600 7 year old kids when ape sh*t on the dance floor. But at the same time, I’ve seen concert venues open where kids were forced to “hop in place” instead of dancing, and a night club shut their doors and leave town only weeks after getting their coveted permits. I’ve been through the permit process, it’s not that hard. There’s even a box you can check for “Dance”. I don’t get it.
Jon Smith Day is September 27th if you want to send a gift.
According to my pal, stgeorgenews.com’s Mori Kessler , who actually broke this story, the city has maintained that the promoter didn’t follow procedure and apply in time and it bit him in the end. Which honestly seems like a fair statement. (thanks to Stgeorgenews.com for the photo of Fiesta Fun)
All of these facts combined could only mean one thing…
The world will jump at any opportunity to talk about Kevin Bacon movies… And I’m more than ok with that.
Mmmm. That’s the stuff.
