Fireworks Galore

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

No matter where you go in Dallas-Fort Worth over the Fourth of July weekend, you'll find fireworks galore.

Photo courtesy of Town of Addison

Celebrating the Fourth of July around Dallas-Fort Worth is easy, as the wealth of celebrations big and small leads to an embarrassment of riches when it comes to event choices. We've rounded up the biggest and best ones for your oohing — er, viewing — pleasure.

Saturday, July 2

Concerts in the Garden: Old-Fashioned Family Fireworks Picnic
The combination of fireworks and patriotic live music played 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 not one, not two, but three chances to experience the thrill, as the event takes place each night through July 4.

Sunday, July 3

Kaboom Town
Addison’s most explosive party of the year, Kaboom Town! features dazzling fireworks choreographed to music, plus food, Cavanaugh Flight Museum’s historic warbird flyovers, bands, and more. The celebration is city-wide, with a party in Addison Circle Park and watch parties at many of Addison’s 180-plus restaurants and 22 hotels. The 30-minute-long fireworks show is among the best in the nation, and is simulcast on 100.3 JACK-FM. Afterwards, while area traffic calms, attendees are invited to remain in Addison Circle Park for a concert by the Party Machine.

Lone Star Park presents Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration
The annual Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration at Lone Star Park features two nights of spectacular fireworks, on July 3 and 4. Kids can enjoy the Family Fun Park featuring pony rides, a petting zoo, obstacle course, zip line, bounce houses, face painters, tattoo artists, and much more. Music lovers can enjoy live music by Vegas Stars between the races. Following the last race each night is a spectacular, 20-minute firework display choreographed to music.

Monday, July 4

Fair Park Fourth
Celebrate America with a day of family fun in Fair Park at the City of Dallas' official Independence Day celebration. The event features free fireworks sponsored by Oncor, with the best seating in the Cotton Bowl, although the show is visible from around Fair Park. The Midway is going to be open, and Dallas Winds is performing a free concert.

Firewheel Town Center Star Spangled Spectacular
Firewheel Town Center, in conjunction with the City of Garland, celebrates our nation’s independence with a full afternoon of family fun during Star Spangled Spectacular. Families enjoy face-painting, bounce houses, games, and Food Truck Alley. Additionally, 92.1 Hank FM Party Patrol will be onsite with games, live music, and even more fun. The event culminates with a patriotic fireworks display at 9:15 pm.

Fort Worth's Fourth
Fort Worth’s Fourth is a free family event at Panther Island Pavilion that includes activities such as zip lines, bounce houses, water slides, and more. There's also live music, tubing, and the biggest fireworks show in North Texas. Aquafly flyboard shows feature riders performing tricks on what can only be described as water-fueled jetpacks. These high-flying daredevils are guaranteed to make the audience’s hearts stop with stunts only seen in the movies.

Denton Kiwanis Club Fireworks Show
Viewing fireworks from inside a stadium is always a bonus, because it comes with built-in seats. Dentonites don't have to travel to the Cotton Bowl for that privilege, as the Denton Kiwanis Club once again is putting on a great, free display at UNT's Apogee Stadium, preceded by a performance by Raised Right Men.

July 4th Fireworks Extravaganza at Lake Grapevine
With lake levels back to normal, you can go back to enjoying the fireworks show at Lake Grapevine at any of the lakeside parks. The event officially takes place at Oak Grove Park, and the 26-minute show is set to patriotic music that can be downloaded at www.GrapevineTexasUSA.com/Summer.

Plano's All-American Fourth Fireworks Show
At Plano's annual Fourth of July celebration at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve, you can grab a bite to eat at food trucks stationed at the nearby Collin College and enjoy music pumped out by a DJ before settling down to take in a fireworks display that rivals any of the others around the area. Make sure to bring a blanket or lawn chair to be comfortable on the grass, and then tune in to 97.5 KLAK for a simulcast of music to which the show is choreographed.

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Movie Review

Spanish film La Bola Negra showcases unique slice of gay history

Photo by Carla Oset/Netflix

Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente in La Bola Negra.

For a long time — too long — gay characters in movies tended to appear as either side characters with no real stories or as tragic figures who were usually unable to express their true selves for fear of what the world at large would think. That has changed in recent years, but the remnants of the past can still haunt, as the new film La Bola Negra demonstrates.

The film takes shape in storylines involving three different men: Carlos (Milo Quifes), a young man in Granada, Spain in 1932 who wants to join an exclusive casino (aka social club); Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente), who unwillingly joins the military during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, only to have desires aroused in him when he’s asked to guard an enemy detainee; and Alberto (Carlos González), an out gay man in 2017 whose inheritance from his recently-deceased grandfather opens up a world he knew nothing about.

The film goes back and forth between each man, detailing how they handle their individual situations and the complications that arise in their individual lives. Along the way their stories are deepened through people they meet who either welcome them with open arms or shun them for various reasons. While tragedy bonds their stories, so too does hope, resistance, and love.

Co-director/co-writers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, along with co-writer Alberto Conejero, have expanded Conejero’s play, La Piedra Oscura, which was inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca’s unfinished play, La Bola Negra. Lorca, who was killed during the Spanish Civil War, had only finished four pages of the work, his first to feature an openly gay protagonist. It’s clear there’s a desire by the filmmakers to honor the legacy of Lorca as both a playwright and a gay man, and the seriousness of their pursuit is evident throughout the film’s 160 minutes.

Calvo and Ambrossi do little handholding to guide viewers through the three distinct stories, an approach that mostly works but occasionally leads to confusion, especially as more characters are added to the equation. None of the stories are overly complicated, but they take their time with each, making the long film feel even longer. Only Alberto’s story contains any kind of development that might be considered surprising, making it tough to fully engage with the other two.

Where the film does come alive is when it brings in two well-known actors for brief-but-fascinating stints. Penélope Cruz plays Nené Romero, a singer who entertains the troops and further expands Sebastián’s mind. Glenn Close pops up as Isabelle Durand, a scholar of Lorca who helps Alberto with a unique discovery he makes in his inheritance. Both actors bring up the level of the film significantly through their performances.

Quifes, Guitarricadelafuente (the stage name of Spanish singer Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, no relation to Javier), and González all put in good work in their roles, even if none are overly engaging. They are often overshadowed by supporting actors like Cruz and Close, as well as Miguel Bernardeau as Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, the captured soldier; Julio Torres as Alberto’s partner, and Alberto Cortés as Lorca, who brings a symmetry to the film as a whole.

La Bola Negra — which means “the black ball,” represented both literally and figuratively in the film — is an ambitious film that becomes a slight victim of its filmmakers’ aspirations. Although each of the three stories contain interesting elements, a strong emotional connection is lacking overall despite good-to-great performances.

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La Bola Negra is now playing in select theaters; it debuts on Netflix on December 2.

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Movie Review

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