After the parade, he and his family processed into the high school football and track stadium. The show was on a stage in the middle of the field at about the 10 yard line, The stands on both sides were packed, and there were thousands more standing along the sides and around the field. Only a few hundred lucky people got onto the field. We did not get a seat (not by a long shot) but I managed to find a nice little spot at a location that was immediately to the right of the stage (the very furthest point from the entrance), with nothing between us and a clear view of the stage but a chain-link fence just outside the running track.
He ended up sitting on the right side of the stage, so we were among the fortunate few to have an unobstructed and straight view of him, although at a significant distance. As I later told my wife, aside from Roman (my son) this was the most pictures that I have ever taken of a guy.
At the start of the show he said a few words, and it was clearly an extremely emotional moment. As he described it, he has been living in his little "American Idol bubble" and now he comes home to 10,000 people packed into his high school stadium to honor his achievement.
Immediately when he sat down, they starting shooting fireworks off behind the stage. The pictures below were taken just as he stood back up, very likely choking back tears and taking in the moment.
We have a neat connection to this event. One of Amelia's (my daughter) best friends at school is named Aylish. David Cook is Aylish's uncle. Aylish and her mom were part of the family entourage and were on the stage, but on the other side and not visible except partially in a few of my pictures. I ran into them on Saturday and she said that they "partied like rock stars" until after 1am that night/morning with David and family.
It was a very cool experience.
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