From OutKast to Taylor Swift: Centennial Olympic Park refreshes Fountain of Rings music

For the first time in its nearly 30-year history, Centennial Olympic Park has changed the music mix for its Fountain of Rings water show. Out: Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and classical music. In: Taylor Swift, Outkast, Ray Charles and Zac Brown Band.

“We wanted artists that had Georgia connections: Ray Charles, James Brown, Outkast, Elton John,” said Ken Stockdell, director of project and program management at Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the state agency that oversees the park. He selected the music with communications director Holly Richmond. “We wanted something patriotic so we picked ‘Chicken Fried’ by the Zac Brown Band. And we took a song that was part of the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics by Gloria Estefan, ‘Reach.’ ”

For the kids, they added songs from Taylor Swift (“Shake It Off”) and the “Encanto” soundtrack (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno”).

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The song refresh was long overdue. The fountain show had not gone through a creative revamp since the Macarena and Spice Girls were hot.

The original set list included classics like “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra, the William Tell Overture, “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid” soundtrack, “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis and “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas.

This is actually the second technological upgrade of the system. The authority in 2007 spent $3 million digitizing the show and installing new PVC piping. This most recent $3.5 million upgrade, which included a $2.5 million contribution from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, features new pumps, LED lighting and a fog system.

While the fountain runs in splash pad mode most of the day, allowing kids to run in and out freely, the specially choreographed water show happens four times a day at noon, 2:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Each show typically runs three songs. Stockdell recommends the nighttime shows because they take full advantage of the light and fog.

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On a recent Monday evening, with the temperature at 65 degrees and not a hint of wind, several children gleefully ran through the fountains, some in swimsuits, some in whatever clothes they came in. At 9 p.m., the fountain powered down momentarily and transitioned to the show.

Water jets flowed in sync from 256 nozzles to the backbeat of Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop The Feeling.” Kids danced to the sick beats of Swift’s “Shake It Off’ as 251 LED lights shifted color under the draining grates. Then the audience watched waves of fog envelop the space during a mesmerizing “Georgia on My Mind” by Ray Charles, while plumes of water shot as high as 15 feet.

“I thought that was very cool,” said Clark Schmutz, a nurse anesthetist from Durham, North Carolina, who was on spring break with his family. “I really liked the ending with ‘Georgia on My Mind.’ ”

“I liked the effects in the last song,” added his 13-year-old son Emmett.

Schmutz was glad to finally see Centennial Olympic Park in person 29 years after watching the Atlanta Summer Olympics on TV as a kid. “It’s a great place to bring people together as a community,” he said. “We need more of that.”

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For the renovation, the Georgia World Congress Center hired San Marcos, Texas-based Fountain People, which has built hundreds of fountains nationwide, including one at Hurt Park a mile away. Although Fountain People was part of the design team in 1996, the equipment installed at the time was not theirs.

As a result, “it took quite some time,” said Brian Reese, creative services director for Fountain People. “It was very difficult to pull another company’s equipment and put ours in.” The fountain was closed for about five months.

But Reese had a blast choreographing the new songs. “My favorite was doing the Taylor Swift song,” Reese said. “I watched her live concert so I could pick up the color palette and programmed it based on that show. It was fast and hard-hitting. I enjoyed it.”

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The Fountain of Rings, which originally cost $2.5 million, is a focal point of Centennial Olympic Park, built by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in advance of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Inspired by European public spaces, Billy Payne, the architect behind the 1996 Games, replaced 21 acres of dilapidated buildings and warehouses in downtown Atlanta with the park. It is now the most obvious legacy of The Games in Atlanta, drawing other attractions such as the Georgia Aquarium, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the College Football Hall of Fame.

The fountain, using the five interlocking rings designed by the founder of the modern Olympic Games Pierre de Coubertin in 1913, was “an incredible draw during The Games,” said Ed Hula, a former Atlantan who ran the Olympics-themed publication Around the Rings for three decades.

Since then, it has become an indelible part of Atlanta’s iconic imagery. From 2000 until 2015, a mural of the Fountain of Rings greeted every person who arrived at the main terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport going up the escalator from the Plane Train.

“Any time I see a TV show that has anything to do with Atlanta, you see the fountains,” Reese said.

Barbara Faga, a project manager who helped develop the park while working with the architectural firm EDAW in the early 1990s, said she has visited the Fountain of Rings countless times over the past three decades, first with her children, then her grandchildren.

“I never get tired of seeing children run through it,” said Faga, who lives in Buckhead. “And when I fly into the airport, I love looking down and seeing it from above. It still amazes me.”

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The fountains take constant monitoring and the wear and tear is real for a system that is constantly recirculating. The current technology now enables the authority to insert new songs and control the show remotely, giving them far more flexibility.

“Our plan moving forward is to continue to add to our music library,” Stockdell said. “And we can do things like add a holiday-themed show.”