4th of July Fireworks Guide

The official guide to the biggest and brightest 4th of July events in Dallas-Fort Worth

As befitting the unofficial motto of Texas, when it comes to Fourth of July fireworks displays in Dallas-Fort Worth, it's go big or go home. Although there are plenty of options for viewing colorful explosions this Independence Day, the following list only includes the biggest and brightest.

Most of the events are free, some cost a nominal amount, but all of them guarantee grand entertainment, both in the sky and on the ground.

Addison Kaboom Town
Kaboom Town, which actually takes place on July 3, has been the standard bearer in the area for years, but recently Addison has had to install measures for crowd control. If you haven't already secured a free ticket to get into Addison Circle Park, you're out of luck, because they've all been claimed. However, the fireworks can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Addison, and many local restaurants and businesses host their own watch parties, so there are still plenty of options if Addison is where you want to be.

Denton Kiwanis Fireworks Show
The Denton Kiwanis Club has been putting on a fireworks show for over 40 years, but it wasn't until Apogee Stadium was built a couple of years ago that they had the perfect venue for the celebration. The event features an array of live music leading up to the fireworks.

Fair Park Fourth
Another stadium, the Cotton Bowl, is the optimal place to view the fireworks at Fair Park Fourth, but the event is an all-day celebration. It features performances by the Razzmajazz Dixieland Band and ZZ Top tribute band Trio Grande, rides, games and concessions along the Midway, and more. Attendees are not limited to the Cotton Bowl for fireworks viewing, though, as pretty much anywhere in Fair Park is a great spot.

Fort Worth's Fourth
Taking place at the riverside Panther Island Pavilion, Fort Worth's Fourth is an extravaganza full of activities like Jet Ski shows, Flyboard shows, pony rides, bounce houses, miniature golf, water slide, levee slide, face painting, tubing and more. Throw in a concert by Larry G(ee) and the fireworks, and you have a helluva free event.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Old-Fashioned Family Fireworks Picnic
Just down the river at Fort Worth Botanic Garden, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra hosts not one, not two, but three straight days of Independence Day celebrations, starting July 2. The orchestra performs the usual array of marches and military salutes, followed by fireworks. Clever Fort Worthians can enjoy both this and Fort Worth's Fourth by placing themselves in just the right position along the Trinity River.

Frisco Freedom Fest
The celebration in Frisco is a two-fer, as Simpson Plaza outside of City Hall has activities like a zip line, Euro bungees, rock climbing wall, bounce houses and a Taste of Frisco, and FC Dallas hosts the Philadelphia Union for an all-American soccer match at Toyota Stadium later in the evening. Those with tickets to the game will have prime seats for the fireworks show emanating from the stadium at the end of the night.

Grapevine July 4th Fireworks Extravaganza
There's just something about seeing fireworks explode over a lake that makes the experience extra special, which is exactly what you get at Lake Grapevine. There are no extra activities with this one, but it's one of the longer shows around, and people come from miles around to see it, so it's best to try to claim your spot as early as possible. If that's too much of a hassle, they're putting on shorter fireworks shows every Friday night through Labor Day.

Irving Independence Day Fireworks Show
Taking place on a (much smaller) lake is Irving's celebration at Lake Carolyn. You'll want to go to this event not only for the great fireworks and entertainment from the likes of Journey tribute band Escape and Jennifer Nickerson, but also to revel in the fact that Irving was named one of the best cities for Fourth of July celebrations by WalletHub.

Lone Stars & Stripes Celebration
Along with the fireworks at Joe Pool Lake, which cost $20 per car, Grand Prairie residents can get their fill by heading over to Lone Star Park. In addition to the fireworks, entertainment includes live horse racing, family activities and a concert by Incognito. As an extra incentive, free tickets can be had at local Ford dealerships, along with an entry form to try to win a brand new 2014 Ford F-150 SuperCrew Truck, which will be given away that night.

McKinney Red, White and Boom
Last but not least, McKinney's Fourth of July celebration takes place at the massive soccer complex at Craig Ranch, featuring live music by Zane Williams and other family activities. The goings-on there are actually the culmination of a day-long event that also includes a parade and car show in downtown McKinney that morning.

The fireworks at Fair Park Fourth can be seen from anywhere around Fair Park.

Photo courtesy of Fair Park

The fireworks at Fair Park Fourth can be seen from anywhere around Fair Park.

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Movie Review

Lazy 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' remake hooks nothing but nostalgia

Photo by Brook Rushton

Sarah Pidgeon, Madelyn Cline and Chase Sui Wonders in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

When the original I Know What You Did Last Summer came out in 1997, it was riding the coattails of Scream, which came out in 1996. Like that film, it featured hot young actors of the time, albeit with a story that was much more standard than the inventive Scream. Still, it made enough of an impact for some studio executive to think it was worth reviving nearly 30 years later with its own legacy-quel.

In the new I Know What You Did Last Summer, a group of five high school friends - Danica (Madelyn Cline), Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) - have reunited at the engagement party for Danica and Teddy on the 4th of July. While on an impromptu trip to watch fireworks on a twisty road in the nearby hills, Teddy goofs off in the middle of the road, causing a truck to swerve and drive off the cliff.

A year later, having sworn to each other to not speak of the accident to anybody, they start getting stalked by a mysterious person in a fisherman’s slicker carrying a hook. With Teddy’s rich father, Grant (Billy Campbell), actively trying to cover up what his son did (as well as the fallout), it’s up to the group to figure out who is coming after them and how to stop that person.

Written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, and co-written by Sam Lansky, the film doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel; in fact, it barely builds something that can roll. It might just be the laziest and most incompetent attempt to capitalize on an existing piece of intellectual property. There is almost zero effort put into establishing a connection between the members of the friend group, making them feel like strangers for the entire film.

It doesn’t help that the young male actors in the film - which grows to include Wyatt (Joshua Orpin), a new fiance for Danica - serve no purpose other than to be generically good-looking. The most impactful of the men in the film is the returning Freddie Prinze, Jr., who - along with Jennifer Love Hewitt - has his old character from the first two films shoehorned into the new story. The filmmakers undercut any good feelings from their return by giving them hardly anything to do and then having Hewitt deliver the line, “Nostalgia is overrated.”

The film as a whole never has a sense of momentum. The inciting incident is so tame - they even attempt to save the driver before the truck goes off the cliff - that the guilt they feel and the anger of the person going after them doesn’t feel warranted. Once the attacks start, it is shocking at how low-energy the sequences are, providing no sense of suspense or thrills. The filmmakers resort to the lamest of horror movie tropes, turning the film into a paint-by-numbers affair.

Cline (one of the stars of Netflix’s Outer Banks) and Wonders (The Studio on Apple TV+, Bodies Bodies Bodies) are the clear stars of the film, but their characters are made into inert scream queens, negating any acting talent they possess. Hauer-King, Withers, and Pidgeon don’t bring anything interesting to their characters, existing merely to have someone else for the killer to go after.

Even the worst films can have some kind of redeeming value if you look hard enough, but the only thing I Know What You Did Last Summer has to offer is that it becomes so comically bad by the end that you can’t help but laugh at its ineptitude. Both fans of the original and fans of horror movies in general will feel cheated by the experience.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer opens in theaters on July 18.

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