The Cougar Marching Band and BYU Color Guard lit up the field with LED lights during the football halftime show on Sept. 6.
The lights were in keeping with BYU's 2025 homecoming theme "Light the Way Forward."
“[The lights] made it different and it made it exciting,” Hannah Elizabeth Evans, a BYU student who watched the game, said. “It was super cool. I noticed the difference.”
Ashlee Taylor, the BYU Color Guard director, said that the athletic marketing team came to the band director, suggesting they add lights to the halftime show.
“Instantly, we were on board,” Taylor said. “We realized that that could be a really great visual effect and create a fun atmosphere for the game.”
Working together with the athletic marketing team, the BYU guard and marching band coordinated with Pixmob, an LED light company, to make their idea a reality.
“Due to the timing of the game being right after school started, we actually did not get to practice with the lights as a full band,” Taylor said. “We had one chance to be able to be able to work with the lights, and it was not during our regular scheduled time, so we had volunteer members of the band … come try them out and make sure that we could work with them.”
Although the full band was unable to try out the lights, the guard came together for a rehearsal on Friday afternoon.
“[The lights] weren't on,” Taylor said. “But they at least practiced with the weight of it and could feel what that would be like.”
Taylor also said the guard knew the stadium lights would be darker for their performance to make the LEDs stand out. When combined with the added weight of a light on their flags, the low lighting could bring up issues.
“We had to change a few things to make sure that we weren't actually tossing in our choreography,” Taylor said. “The students just did a great job being really flexible and making sure that they were prepared for the performance.”
Annabelle Bransford, one of the captains of the guard, had performed in dozens of BYU halftime shows as she entered her fourth year at BYU. She said the lights didn’t affect their performance at all.
“It made [our flags] a little heavier, so our arms got tired faster, but we worked with it,” Bransford says. “We were able to practice beforehand … I think that made it a little easier.”
The performance was the first time Bransford saw the lights on.
“We're not supposed to look up at the jumbotron while we're performing, but it was really hard not to watch ourselves — because, like, wow, that actually looks so cool.”
The BYU football team won its game 27-3. Taylor said the light show was well received by the crowd and brought a new element to the game.
“Now more than ever, BYU is just a place of light,” Bransford said. “We need to be able to show our light, and I think that night, we literally showed that — we brought light to the stadium.”
Though the lights were a one-time addition for the first game, Taylor says they would love to do it again if they have the opportunity.