By 2 p.m. the Carroll College campus looked like a brightly colored patchwork quilt under a cloudless sky.

By 6 p.m., the party had begun.

Lynne Grant sat under an umbrella, munching on London broil, chicken, cole slaw and fruit salad as her husband, fondly known as "Chez" Paul Grant today, opened a bottle of Sutter Home chardonnay. Their table was covered with a crisp white cloth, accented by a vase holding a bright pink flower.

"This will be our 10th symphony, and you learn how to do it up right," Chez Paul said.

"The flower adds a touch of elegance," noted his friend Ruth McArdle, who was about to experience her first Symphony Under the Stars.

Along with the concert, this group of friends was looking forward to dessert.

"It's chocolate covered strawberries, raspberry cheese cake and wine slushies," Lynne Grant said.

"And champagne."

With rocket science precision, at exactly 8:30 p.m., Maestro Allan R. Scott took to the stage, and the building horns and rumbling timpani heralded this year's "Out of this World" concert, opening with the theme from the movie "2001, A Space Odyssey."

"The stars are emerging, the Buzz of the evening is all around us and we are ready to launch," Scott said proudly.

The music was interspersed with a recording of the original Apollo 11 countdown, and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin took the stage to rousing applause.

"Thirty-nine years ago oday, the night of July 19, 1969, I was in the Apollo 11 command module, 200,000 miles from home," Aldrin told the estimated 15,000-person audience. "On that day, we passed behind the moon, fired our engines and entered orbit around the moon. One day later we landed.

"Once I looked out the window of the lunar lander, as we touched down, the sun was out and the sky was unbelievably black. The engines were shut down and everything was silent. It was surreal."

He went on to narrate the Gustav Holst's story of the planets, based on their Greek mythological history, as the sun slipped below the Continental Divide and the crowd slipped into a mesmerized silence. The second half of the concert was a mix of music from movies including "Star Wars," "Superman" and "E.T."

And a good buzz was had by all.

Reporter Eve Byron: 447-4076 or eve.byron@helenair.com