Friday, Dec. 02, 2011

New production lights up stadium parking lot in Myrtle Beach

By Steve Palisin - spalisin@thesunnews.com

jblackmon@TheSunNews.com

"Christmas Wonderland" LED-light and music drive-through in the parking lot of BB&T Coastal Field covers 1 1/2 miles on Friday, Nov. 26, 2011. The attraction is a Shadrack Production. Admission ranges from $25 to $50 and part of the proceeds are slated to go to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Grand Strand Humane Society. Photo by Janet Blackmon Morgan / jblackmon@thesunnews.com

The Grand Strand has doubled the way it lights up the night this Christmas season in a big way.

Besides Brookgreen Gardens’ annual “Nights of a Thousand Candles,” opening Friday for the next three weekends with more than 5,500 hand-lit candles and a slew of stage acts nightly, Shadrack Productions’ “Christmas Wonderland” has illuminiated the offseason by the stadium where the Myrtle Beach Pelicans play baseball.

Shadrack’s light show, set up outside the city of Myrtle Beach’s BB&T Coastal Field and synchronized with a playlist picked up at 101.1 on FM radio, lets everyone see an orchestra of about 1 million LED bulbs go running with the night on a 11/2 mile, drive-through route circling the parking lot.

During Mannheim Steamroller’s “Stille Nacht (Silent Night),” white snowflakes flow with the soft melody and the lights move more gradually, but during the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “The Nutcracker,” the lights dance in almost a psychedelic fashion, the way they all go out suddenly for a second, then gradually light up across the landscape.

With other tunes such as “Christmas with a Capital C” and “Joy to the World” by Go Fish, “Carol of the Bells” by David Foster and several Shadrack renditions including “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from “The Nutcracker,” the lights take a variety of speeds and color combinations, whether going all green or taking turns and blending with red, blue and white, and some gold for candle flames. The music covers secular and sacred, traditional and modern.

Watch the rows of trees light up in unison along a retention pond during the Shadrack cover of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah.”

Most of the route, all one way, spans two lanes, so drivers can pull over to the side to take in the show. Between idling and just cruising slowly, a ride through could easily last 30 minutes. Both sides of the lanes are visibly marked, like an airport runway, and we experienced no feelings of being rushed on a spin through the display on the evening before Thanksgiving.

Richie King, co-owner of Shadrack, based in Bristol, Tenn., said 700 hours of labor went into coordinating the light synchronicity of each of Shadrack’s seven songs and it took six weeks to set up the whole wonderland. The extravaganza utilizes 117 computers and nine miles of wires to make the whole production play out.

King said this show, along with three other similar productions – two in Tennessee and one in Maryland – represent “the largest lights synchronization of this kind.”

Hop on a camel

The path leads around the stadium to Santa’s Village tent area, facing the southwest corner of Mr. Joe White Avenue and Grissom Parkway, with a range of activities that range from about $1 to $7 each, whether for making snow angels or hopping the saddle to ride a camel.

Two laps on a camel inside a ring will show anyone the difference of that left-right, waddling gait of the camel vs. the walk of a horse. Jenny Van-Etten of 5 Star Farm in Loris helped lead rides on Cracker, a 9-year-old male, with a soft winter coat one can stroke behind his head.

“Camels go like a choo-choo train,” she said, noting how a back leg moves first, prompting that same side’s front to go, then the same cycle takes place on the other two legs.

That contrasts with a horse, dog or cat, where a step is made with a front leg, then the opposite hind leg, and the other two corresponding legs – front, then the back on the other side – follow suit.

“That’s why it rocks you left and right,” Van-Etten said.

5 Star Farm rotates Cracker with two other camels every night: Camella, 7, and Clint, 4, Van-Etten said.

She also brought up how camels’ endurance provided a main mode of transportation in the Middle East more than 2,000 years ago, and for explorers and conquerors from Asia to Africa.

“That’s why they called them the ships of the desert,” Van-Etten said.

Extra bases in exposure

Helping check in passengers last week at Shadrack’s gate, King said Shadrack hopes the lights and village experience bring something “magical” and memorable for the community to share for the season. He credited city offiicals and Pelicans personnel for welcoming the wonderland.

Scott Brown, general manager for Pelicans baseball, part of the Texas Rangers’ system of farm clubs, spoke about the city and team being “thrilled” to have Shadrack’s light and music show for almost two months.

“It’s our goal to make the stadium a year-round gathering place for Grand Strand residents and tourists alike,” Brown said.

He said the lights also might provide many visitors their first exposure to the stadium site, and that city and team officials want to welcome them back to see the crack of the bat and fly balls when spring and summer return.

Reach STEVE PALISIN at 444-1764.