"If it weren't for our sponsors, we couldn't put on the show," Pelo said. "When Miley goes on tour, there are huge economies of scale to doing so many shows. We have a one-time event with zero economies of scale. We are subsidized by sponsors and philanthropists who feel it is a community event that needs to continue."

The images of the past week have been jarring as Hannah hoopla drove the market value of the tickets far above face value: The man who stuffed his tickets into his cowboy boots to safeguard them before leaving the ticket window. The crying children whose families didn't get tickets. The woman with cancer longing to get her grandkids in to see their idol.

"The market forces that have come to bear have created opportunists and victims," Pelo said.

Now he and festival officials are bracing for a new experience. Cyrus/Montana is a teen pop star, a break from years of country music acts that have fueled about 50 percent of tickets sales in the past.

Longtime Provo residents are accustomed to 250,000 people attending the Freedom Festival parade on the morning of the Fourth and a similar number packing the streets, hills and mountain benches around the stadium for the fireworks at night.

This year, that number could jump. Security will at least triple. National media will descend, and probably paparazzi, too. To prepare, Pelo and Co. are consulting with Houston and other places Cyrus has played.

It's a cruel question with another three months still to go before the show, but how will Pelo possibly upstage all this next year?

"This year the high-water mark of the show will be a headliner at the top of her game," he said. "Will we do it again next year? I doubt it. But every year the high-water mark changes. Next year it might not be the headliner but other elements of the show. It could be a celebrity. The two years Sean Hannity came, his status with his radio show was huge."

That's very true. But he wasn't Hannah Montana huge.

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Tad Walch lives with his wife and five children in Provo, their home for the past 21 years. Please e-mail twalch@desnews.com.