Fair Park Fourth brings Cotton Bowl another great event

Call me a sucker, but I really enjoy fireworks. We’ve had a chance to catch 4th of July shows at Lone Star Park, in DeSoto, and even on the Trinity River in years past.  This year we decided to check out Fair Park Fourth.

It was pretty easy getting out to good old F.P. Saturday night.  We parked in an $8 lot right across the street from the Women’s Museum and walked right in.  Since we made it a little bit before eight, we didn’t have a lot of time to spare, so we headed straight for the Cotton Bowl.

There were many people gathered in lawn chairs leading up to the stadium, and even more people waiting in line at the bottom or the steps for State Fair like goodies.  Tickets were being sold for $1 in order to purchase food as well as to ride the Texas Skyway.  Though I was in the mood for a funnel cake, the line was too long so we went inside.

I asked one of the ushers where we would get the best view of the fireworks, and she told us in the end zone (opposite the Jumbotron), the newest part of the Cotton Bowl which is where we also watched the P.V./Grambling game.  This part of the stadium also has the shortest lines because most folks still don’t realize that there are concession stands over there.

Twenty-five dollars worth of tickets got us a hot dog, extra long corn dog, two bottles of water, two chills (lemon and strawberry) and a bag of chips, making it a $33 outing with parking.  I would have been willing to kick in an extra 3 bucks for a funnel cake but that’s in the past now.

After some great performances (including a dazzling Old Man River), the fireworks started promptly at 9:30 p.m.  The show was good, maybe real good, but not great.  In these tough economic times, maybe we didn’t get the best of the best in pyrotechnics (I give the nod to a show that I saw in Ft. Smith, Arkansas last year) but the overall presentation was..well…good.

I can see the Williams Family working Fair Park Fourth into the rotation.  It’s another great use for the Cotton Bowl and another date to bring folks down to Fair Park.  Next year we’ll take DART’s Green Line in and avoid the traffic involved in leaving South Dallas after the show.

As the stadium goes, I figure booking 6-8 solid dates would give the Cotton Bowl the same type of traffic as college football stadiums around the country.  With OU/Texas, Grambling/PV, and Fair Park Fourth, you’ve got three locked down.  The other football games scheduled -Harvey Martin Classic and Lone Star Classic- will need to draw at least 15,000 (hopefully many more at some point) before I consider those dates “locked down”, but it sure is good to have them booked.

Texas Tech and Baylor will play in Fair Park on October 9, 2010, rotating the game between Cowboys stadium each year, and that’s a lock. Get a bowl game booked to replace the “Cotton Bowl” and we’re in business.  I’m not mad at the State Fair folks for getting their hustle on, and Dallas taxpayers can feel good about the money that has been spent on the renovated Cotton Bowl.  I can attest to the fact that it made for a nice place to catch a fireworks show this past weekend.