Stand-alone events sought for Fair Park
Supporters push such events to make park more yearround attraction.
Dallas — Fair Park has long been known as home to the State Fair of Texas, the annual Texas-Oklahoma football game and the venerable Cotton Bowl.
But its supporters have been working to make the 277-acre park — a National Historic Landmark because it has one of the nation’s largest intact groupings of art deco buildings — more of a year-round attraction, pushing for more standalone events instead of relying on permanent attractions to bring in the crowds.
To some degree, the shift was out of necessity as some museums at the park have moved, closed or changed their focus.
“I think we should have something out here every weekend,” said Craig Holcomb, executive director of the Friends of Fair Park. “We want a place where anyone with a Sunday afternoon can just show up and know something is going on.”
The latest example is the Chinese Lantern Festival, which was brought in for the State Fair and has been held over until Jan. 6 as a holiday attraction.
The 22 lantern sets, including a dragon made from 15,000 porcelain dishes and a model of the Statue of Liberty, were built around the Fair Park lagoon by a team of workers from Sichuan, China.
“We had more than 150,000 see it during the fair, and the response was fantastic,” said Wayne Adam, the lantern festival’s spokesman. “We decided maybe this deserves a little longer run.”
The next new attraction will arrive in May when the State Fair midway opens as part of a new Summer Adventures theme park that will run through mid-August. It will include tropicalthemed water features, animal shows and a brand-new 500-foot Top o’ Texas Tower ride, now under construction.
Officials say the summer attraction, which is projected to draw 350,000 visitors in its first year, is aiming for families with small children rather than competing with Six Flags Over Texas and area water parks.
“We’re certainly anticipating some folks coming from Tarrant County, but I’m not sure they would be considered our prime market because on the road between here and there is Six Flags,” State Fair spokesman Mitchell Glieber said. “Our target audience is probably going to be a little younger.”
The admission price will include rides and animal shows. Several museums, including the Children’s Aquarium and the Texas Discovery Gardens, are also expected to be included in the price. Still, challenges remain. The Museum of Nature and Science is moving the bulk of its collection to the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Victory Park. It will maintain a smaller presence in Fair Park, but a future use for the main building has yet to be determined.