Entertainment

Starlight Theatre is installing ‘mega fans’ to cool patrons on hot summer nights

Starlight Theatre is installing four “mega fans” to keep patrons cooler next summer. Blades will be attached this week to this pole.
Starlight Theatre is installing four “mega fans” to keep patrons cooler next summer. Blades will be attached this week to this pole. Starlight Theatre

Patrons of Starlight Theatre next summer will notice something different:

Four “mega fans,” each one 35 feet tall, will create a breeze within the seating bowl to keep them cooler on those hot Kansas City nights.

The poles will rise up from the seating area. Each one will have five 10-foot-long horizontal blades.

“When all four fans run together at full speed, they will generate a breeze of about 4 mph throughout Starlight’s seating bowl,” the theater said in announcing the installation.

The fans are being installed this week by McCownGordon Construction LLC. The project is costing $628,000.

Starlight said a similar system was installed in 2013 at St. Louis Muny outdoor theater “and has received highly favorable response from patrons.”

For those concerned about the fans creating a noisy distraction from the entertainment on stage during “The King and I” next summer, Starlight Theatre assures that these fans will be “ultra-quiet.”

Matt Campbell: 816-234-4902, @MattCampbellKC

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Starlight Theatre is installing ‘mega fans’ to cool patrons on hot summer nights."

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