In addition to all the spectacular floral displays around Longwood Gardens you can’t miss those fantastic fountains. Meet the team that makes it all happen. Jessica Kartalija reports.
[Music] well summer is in full swing and full bloom in Chester County in addition to all the spectacular floral displays around Longwood Gardens you can’t miss those fantastic fountains uhuh Jessica is on the beat the summer beat the one I enjoyed so much last year let’s check in with her in kennet square on your Friday evening hey Jess hi yuke yeah I like what you did there full bloom right so the fountains are already the major attraction and the show hasn’t even started there are two shows one at 5:15 and one later this evening where the fountains are all lit up and it’s all choreographed to Fantastic music everything from classical to Country to pop rock youe I know you love those 70s but how does it all happen we went behind the scenes to give you this special sneak peek in a sure sign of Summer the famous fountains are dancing at Longwood Gardens Festival of fountains is what we call our summer season at Longwood and we call it that because we’re celebrating our fountains the newly reopened Conservatory Overlook provides guests a perfect viewing spot it’s really fun to watch a crowd get into a fountain show and enjoy it or to have really quiet moments that are very Serene and beautiful I think you get something different out of every show you watch and that’s what I really love of course designing these Dynamic displays and keeping them up and running that takes expert engineering and plenty of teamwork there’s about 38,000 gallons of water being pumped per minute when the shows are running there’s over 338,000 gallons of water stored underground in these underground storage tanks that we use and recirculate the water on a constant basis we got a rare look at some of the powerful pumps massive pipes during a tour through the underground infrastructure about 12 ft beneath the main Fountain Garden this is what we call our main pump room so in this room there are 45 different pumps that Supply water to all the fountains that are directly above our head each one of these pumps will ramp up and start a different display in total there are 1,719 jets in including one that can send water soaring 175 ft into the air you can see the fountains are on the screen and I can zoom in and it looks the same out there in the control room lead designer Tim Martin shares a Peak at the creative process I sit there listening to that music for a couple of weeks and then I start designing with this program here called syncronorm it allows the team to visualize what a fountain show will look like before a drop of water even flows and I can see everything from the the lights the water and our flame effects I can see what that is going to look like takes 40 hours to design a 30-minute show in the studio and then another 20 hours in the field I let the water try to feel like it’s hearing the music for the first time so I I I want that I want that experience for the guest the picture perfect summer snapshot an ultimate souvenir from a trip to Longwood I think it’s the spectacle of the fountain shows that is so amazing it’s the combination of the dancing water the music the lights the emotion it evokes the energy of the people [Music] watching all right guys kudos to our producers because this is timed perfectly the show has begun and it is spectacular and the perfect day for it from our vantage point we are just loving it like I said people got here early to get a perfect spot on the lawn but I have to tell you we’re up at this new conservation Overlook I think this is the best spot and uke you can come out here Thursday Friday and Saturday evenings to see the performances Longwood has also brought back some other performances so you need to go online and check for that as well and the tickets sell out very very quickly so you need to plan ahead there are tickets still available for the September and October shows but another reason to just stay here a little bit longer if you come out in the day and just check it out