Provo City’s Recreation Department hosted a Harry Styles sing-along event at Peaks Ice Arena on Sept. 16.
Provo Recreation has hosted sing-along events for the last three years, with last year’s Taylor Swift sing-along attracting a crowd of nearly 1,000 people, according to Provo City’s Special Events Coordinator Tara Williams.
According to Williams, these events are targeted for college students and often include a series of activities inspired by a popular artist or in one case, a Broadway musical. This year’s event centered on Harry Styles, who’s song “As it Was” is still the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with a history of 23 weeks on the charts since its release on March 31. The event consisted of ice skating on a Harry-themed ice rink, raffles and games for poster and sticker prizes and a costume contest.
“We did our Taylor Swift event last year and that was huge, so we decided to do it again this year with Harry Styles. So far we have had really good engagement with our social media posts, people have really been liking what we’re doing,” Williams said.
BYU student Savannah Porter decided to come after her friends saw the social media posts and invited her.
“I actually heard about this event from my friends, and they heard about it just through social media,” Porter said. “I thought it would be super fun to dress up as Harry Styles and skate.”
BYU student Justin Lemke said he follows Provo Recreation on Instagram to hear about local events.
Lemke was a participant in the costume contest. “This is Harry inspired, I’m missing the green pants,” he said. “But this is one of his outfits that he wore, I think to the Met Gala.”
The contest was judged by crowd members cheering for their favorite costume. Local high school student Creed Ford won the crowd’s vote.
Ford spoke of his appreciation for Styles’ fashion. “I just love how he can dress up however he wants and he doesn’t have to worry about gender norms or anything,” he said.
In addition to being a fan of the featured artist, Ford is also a competitive ice skater who trains at Peaks Ice Arena. “I was here actually like five hours ago or something. I have been ice skating for ten years, so a pretty long time,” he said. Ford began skating at age 5, and competing around 8 years old. Last month he competed in the National Showcase in Florida, receiving 11th place in his level for his solo performance and 5th for his duet.
For Williams, bringing all kinds of members of the community together is what this is all about. “We put on events like this because we want to provide fun, easy, accessible experiences for the community,” she said. “It’s important to us to be able to provide these fun experiences that are great for the community and bring us all closer together.”
