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    Fireworks Aplenty

    The official list of top 4th of July events and fireworks around Dallas-Fort Worth

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 10, 2019 | 10:12 am
    Fireworks
    Fireworks will light up the skies all over Dallas-Fort Worth between June 29 and July 5.
    Photo by Iam Kluft

    With the Fourth of July falling on a Thursday this year, Independence Day celebrations around Dallas-Fort Worth will last for almost a week, as different cities in the area will be holding events nearly every day between June 29 and July 5. We've rounded up the biggest and best ones for your oohing — er, viewing — pleasure.

    Saturday, June 29

    Klyde Warren Park presents Independence Day Celebration
    Guests can celebrate Independence Day a few days early at Klyde Warren Park by sampling cold treats from more than a dozen vendors, and enjoying contests, live music, games, and other fun family activities. Wrap up the evening with a concert by the U.S. Army’s 36th Infantry Division Band and a spectacular pyrotechnic display on the Park’s East Lawn.

    Market Street Allen USA Celebration
    Allen usually gets the jump on the rest of the area by about a week or so, but they'll still be one of the first out of the gate with this event at Celebration Park. There will be live music, pop-up performances, a car show, activities like a Ninja Challenge obstacle course and football Combine Challenge, with fireworks set to music to finish the night.

    Celebrate Freedom Festival
    The Celebrate Freedom Festival will feature performances by Christian bands such as For King & Country, Mandisa, We Are Messengers, Micah Taylor, Austin French, and Pat Barrett. There will be a massive fireworks show at the end of the event. Tickets are free and available for download on the 94.9 KLTY mobile app beginning on June 17.

    Sunday, June 30

    Viridian presents Stars and Stripes Celebration
    Viridian’s annual salute to Independence Day will feature free concerts by Lillly Harvey, The Shane Bell Band, and Live 80. Also planned are a pop-up market, bounce houses, food trucks, and a silent auction that will benefit Nehemiah Builds. The event concludes with fireworks over the lake.

    Sunnyvale Fireworks Show
    The City of Sunnyvale will present their 5th Annual Fireworks Show. The event, taking place at Sunnyvale First Baptist Church, will feature live music, food trucks, and bounce houses.

    Wednesday, July 3

    Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Concerts in the Garden: Old-Fashioned Family Fireworks Picnic
    The combination of fireworks and patriotic music played live by an orchestra is one that can't be beat, and that's what you get at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's annual Old-Fashioned Family Fireworks Picnic at Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Luckily, you get two chances to experience the thrill, as the event takes place on both July 3 and 4.

    Addison Kaboom Town
    Every year, half a million guests celebrate at Addison Kaboom Town. The event is citywide, with the main party at Addison Circle Park; watch parties at many of Addison’s restaurants and 23 hotels; and the Addison Airport Air Show, which can be seen from anywhere in town. The 30-minute fireworks show is among the best in the nation, simulcast on 100.3 JACK-FM. Afterwards, while area traffic calms, attendees can stay in Addison Circle Park as Emerald City Band takes the stage to entertain the masses.

    Light Up Arlington
    Arlington's annual Fourth of July festival features live entertainment, fun for the kids, food and general vendors, and a ginormous fireworks display right in the middle of Downtown Arlington. There will also be a concert featuring Donovan Keith and The Voice finalist Hannah Kirby at Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts.

    Red White & Boom on the Bridge
    Red White & Boom on the Bridge, presented by the City of Dallas and 98.7 K-LUV, returns for another year. It features live music, family activities, and plenty of great food along the Ronald Kirk Bridge, The Felix Lozada Sr. Gateway, and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. The evening will end with fireworks over the Dallas skyline.

    Granbury Chamber of Commerce presents Granbury 4th of July
    Granbury's Fourth of July celebration takes place over the course of four days, starting with the D&D Rockin' Rods Car Show on July 3. That's followed by a parade around the Historic Granbury Square, rodeo, concert, and fireworks on July 4, Battle of the Bands on July 5, and a free Concert in the Park on July 6. Vendors will be in the square all day long July 4-6.

    Thursday, July 4

    Liberty by the Lake
    The Colony will present an entire day of family fun at Stewart Creek Park to celebrate the birth of America's freedom. The day includes a fun run, 5K, and 10K, live music, family fun zone, watermelon eating contest, fireworks finale, and much more. The run starts at 7:45 am, with the festival starting at 4 pm.

    City of Irving presents Independence Day Celebration
    The City of Irving will present its annual two-part celebration of America’s independence. There will be a wide variety of activities throughout the day, including an award-winning parade and community reception at Heritage Park from 9 am to noon, and an evening festival with fireworks display at Lake Carolyn from 6-10 pm.

    Dallas Heritage Village presents Old Fashioned Fourth
    Not every Fourth of July event includes fireworks. At Dallas Heritage Village's Old Fashioned Fourth, guests are encouraged to dress in red, white, and blue, and bring a picnic basket to celebrate our nation’s past. Guests can explore the Village and chat with costumed characters, and bring a wagon, decorate it at the craft station, and be a part of the All-Join-In-Parade at noon. They can also test their modern skills against a variety of Victorian era games, including the Junior Historian Carnival and its famous stick pony race.

    Fort Worth's Fourth
    Fort Worth’s Fourth is a full day of free family fun at Panther Island Pavilion on the Trinity River. The celebration also includes live music from Poo Live Crew and Party Machine Band, Hydroflight Team Show performances throughout the day, a kids zone, tubing, and more. Plus when the sun goes down, spectators are treated to the largest fireworks show in North Texas, coordinated with music on 95.9 The Ranch.

    Fair Park Fourth
    You can get some State Fair of Texas action by attending Fair Park Fourth, where rides, games, and concessions are open along the Midway. Visitors can also take in Fair Park's museums, historic art and architecture, family activities, concerts, and more. It all leads up to the fireworks display once the sun sets, viewable from the Cotton Bowl or anywhere in Fair Park.

    Frisco Freedom Fest
    Frisco Freedom Fest is composed of a variety of events, including Party in the Plaza at Simpson Plaza with local dancers, singers, and bands, a Children's Expo complete with jump houses, face painting, strolling entertainers and games, and the Hometown Hero Exhibit; Taste of Frisco, showcasing multiple Frisco restaurants; and a fireworks show. FC Dallas is also taking on DC United at Toyota Stadium that night, with fireworks following the match.

    City of Plano presents All American Fourth
    Plano’s All American Fourth will celebrate the U.S.A. with a festival and fireworks. The event includes live music, a free kids zone with bounce houses and rock climbing, a food and vendor market, and a fantastic fireworks display, which is simulcast on Radio 97.5 KLAK. Coolers are welcome, but alcoholic beverages are not allowed.

    Firewheel Town Center presents Star Spangled Spectacular
    Firewheel Town Center, in conjunction with the City of Garland, will celebrate the nation’s independence with a full afternoon of family fun during the Star Spangled Spectacular. There will be face-painting, bounce houses, caricature artists, balloon twisters, strolling entertainment, food trucks, and more. 92.1 Hank FM Party Patrol will be onsite, there will be a live performance by Hi Definition, and the event will culminate with a patriotic fireworks display at 9:15 pm.

    Lone Star Park presents Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration
    The Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration at Lone Star Park on July 4 and 5 features live horse racing, live music by Vegas Stars, and an expanded Family Fun Park with bounce houses, face painters, tattoo artists, pony rides, a petting zoo, and more. After the races conclude each night, there will be a world class fireworks show choreographed to music.

    Castle Hills presents July 4th Freedom Festival
    The annual Castle Hills 4th of July Freedom Festival celebrates its 21st year with a day of family-friendly activities, music, food trucks, and a fireworks display. Taking place at Castle Hills Village Shops & Plaza in Lewisville, it will feature a giant inflatable obstacle course, bounce houses, face painters, and a balloon artist, as well as a DJ at Lake Avalon. There is also a neighborhood parade earlier in the day.

    Denton Kiwanis Club 4th of July Fireworks Show
    Since 1972, the Denton Kiwanis Club has presented the 4th of July Fireworks Show. For the eighth year in a row, the event takes place at UNT's Apogee Stadium. Prior to the fireworks, there's a children’s activity area and live entertainment. Fireworks start at 9:30 pm. The event is technically free, but there is a $10 charge to park in the surrounding parking lots, with proceeds benefiting the youth services that the Kiwanis Club supports.

    Grapevine presents 36th Annual July 4th Fireworks Extravaganza
    The annual 4th of July celebration in Grapevine has a reputation as one of the best fireworks shows around. The show will be launching from Great Wolf Lodge due to high lake levels. Consequently, suggested viewing areas have changed from parks around Lake Grapevine to any public parking lot in Grapevine, including Great Wolf Lodge, Historic Downtown Main Street, The REC of Grapevine, and more.

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    Movie Review

    Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

    Alex Bentley
    Dec 26, 2025 | 1:01 pm
    Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda
    Photo by Matt Grace
    Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

    In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

    The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

    Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

    Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

    The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

    It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

    Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

    Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

    ---

    Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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