A salute to Rhythm And Booms
Our rough sketch of a future dystopia.
Do all other goings-on in late June exist merely to cower in the shadow of Rhythm And Booms? Not only does the annual pre-Independence Day shindig in Warner Park claim the title of “largest single-day event in Wisconsin” and attendance by about 300,000 people, it’s also effectively armed, thanks to a big fireworks display and fly-overs from Wisconsin Air National Guard fighter jets. It has its own art and culture, courtesy of musical features like the “Greatest Hits Stage,” bingo, and carnival games. It has the old, the young, and the breeders in between, and plenty of meat to feed ’em. In essence, it manages to create a moderately sized, über-patriotic city-state within Dane County.
In fact, Decider submits to you that if we could replicate Rhythm And Booms deep within the earth’s crust, our society would be prepared to survive a nuclear holocaust. Granted, it might be a slightly frightening post-apocalyptic world—one where condiment-stained children run amok bathing in dirt, and personal space is relegated to the area occupied by a lawn chair—but dammit, it would be our world. We’d surely be a little bit fat(ter) and unhealthier from a steady diet of cotton candy and meat products on sticks, though through these long, hot days we’d be buoyed by knowledge that every night, starting at 9:30, we’d have glorious fireworks set to music as our nightcap. And in spite of all the other inconveniences, that’d be pretty damn cool.
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