Kevin Bacon returns to the Footloose school forty years after the iconic teenage movie was filmed after students mounted online campaign for him to visit before it is shut down

Four decades after Footloose made him a household name, Kevin Bacon returned to the high school in Payson, Utah where the movie was filmed.

'I think that it’s amazing the power that this movie has had to just kind of bring people together,' the star, 65, told the crowd at Payson High School on Saturday. 

Video showed that Bacon hadn't lost his touch, moving his feet along with the movie's theme song as it played over loudspeakers as he took to the stage. 

His appearance was part of a campaign taken on by students, principal Jesse Sorenson said, ahead of massive refurbishments which will see the school torn down this summer. 

'Go Lions! Here we are on this beautiful, beautiful spot on this beautiful, beautiful day. It’s been a long time — 40 years — that just blows my mind, you know,' Bacon told the screaming fans. 

'Things look a little different around here. I’d say the thing that looks the most different is me.' 

Four decades after Footloose made him a household name, Kevin Bacon returned to the high school in Payson, Utah where the movie was filmed.

Still got it. Bacon, 65, moves his fast feet, albeit with the help of a chair, as the Footloose theme song blasts out over a loudspeaker

The 65-year-old actor returned to the small town of roughly 21,000, which is 60 miles south of Salt Lake City

Principal Jesse Sorenson said that some of his students have tried to get Bacon to come  back for years, especially since the school will be torn down next spring

The visit turned into a charitable endeavor, with students agreeing to put together 5,000 care packages for Bacon's charity, the Six Degrees foundation.

The charity also filmed Bacon's arrival at the school and his speech to those who showed up to help, on their Instagram page. 

The students and residents of Payson started a campaign to get him to come back called #BaconToPayson, with the actor revealing how he first heard about it.

'When I first heard about this Bacon to Payson thing, I was like ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ But you were all just tireless. Unrelenting … You talked me into it,' Bacon said.

'I think it’s great to see that kind of commitment to anything. I also think that it’s amazing the power that this movie has had to just kind of bring people together, and connect on the basic ideas there are behind the movie,' he added.

'You know, standing up to authority sometimes, and to being forgiving to people who are not exactly the same as you, and for standing up for your own freedoms and your right to express yourself, and for having compassion for other people,' he said.

'That's what all of you have shown here by turning what could be just a movie star coming back to get pat on the back into something really positive and that's what we're going to do today when we build these kits,' Bacon added.

'So thank you, thank you so much for your commitment to giving back to your community and to the people you're sharing this planet with,' he said.

'Wow look at this place, look at these people. It's so great to be here. Go Lions!' Bacon began, referring to the Payson High School mascot the Lions

'Here we are on this beautiful, beautiful spot on this beautiful, beautiful day,” Bacon said as he opened up his speech to the Payson High student body

Footloose was released in February 1984, following Ren McCormack (Bacon), a student who moves to the small town of Bormont that has outlawed dancing and rock music, as he tries to rally the students to help lift the ban

Bacon added that he was 'thrilled that we're gonna be working here together' as the crowd applauded. 

Bacon's foundation Six Degrees was aiming to create 40,000 'essential resource kits' for youth and schools.

As part of his visit, the students pledged to create 5,000 on the day of his return, before their school prom.

Footloose was released in February 1984, following Ren McCormack (Bacon), a student who moves to the small town of Bormont that has outlawed dancing and rock music, as he tries to rally the students to help lift the ban.