Celebrate the 26th anniversary of Addison's KaboomTown on July 3rd in Addison Circle Park.
This free event is more than just fireworks. Come early (5:00 pm) and stay late (midnight) to avoid the traffic.
Here's the lineup for the main stage entertainment:
- 5:00 PM Mapleshade, a versatile Dallas area music group specializing in the performance of Rock, R&B and Blues hits from the 50's, 60's & 70's
- 6:30 PM Studio 54, one of the hottest and most extraordinary dance bands in the Metroplex
- 8:15 PM Dallas Wind Symphony
- 9:35 PM Fireworks (approx. time)
- 10:15 PM After Party: Emerald City Band
Additionally, aircraft from WWI, WWII and beyond will do flyovers between 7:00 - 9:00. At 9:00, Matt Younkin will perform Magic by Moonlight, the world's only night aerobatic display. In a Beech 18 equipped with 17 spotlights and 13 strobes, the top of the plane appears to glow int he dark while the bottom twinkles.
Bring a cooler or purchase from the concession booths and don't forget blankets and lawn chairs. See you there on Sunday night!
KaboomTown is ranked as the 3rd best fireworks event in the US and draws thousands to Addison, Texas for the evening.
(Note: Addison Circle Drive from Addison Road to Witt Place will close on Sunday, July 3 at 8 am and will re-open on Sunday, July 3 before midnight. Arapaho Road Bridge will close at 2:00 pm on July 3 and will open after the fireworks show (approximately 10:30 pm). Addison Airport Tunnel will be one way (westbound) from approximately 9:30 pm - 11:30 pm. The Town of Addison will pay the tunnel fee for cars during the closed period. Festival Way from Addison Road to Quorum Drive will close on Wednesday, June 29 at 9 am and will re-open on July 6 by 5pm. Lindbergh Drive will close approximately 9 pm on July 3 and will open after the fireworks show (approximately 10:30 pm). To avoid the traffic, plan to stay for the Emerald City Band who will be performing in the park after the fireworks.)
{Added 7/2/2011: the following is an explanation from Ron Whitehead, the Addison City Manager, about how the name KaboomTown came to be.}
Kaboom Town 1985-2011
We had an inquiry this week about how we ended up with Kaboom Town as a name for our July 3rd Fireworks Celebration. This is the 26th year of the event and back in the day, when we started the event, things were booming in Addison. We had construction cranes poking their heads up all over the town. We were building like crazy. At the time our advertising firm came up with the idea of combining the concept of the town growing rapidly and the sound the fireworks made. Kaboom Town was the result of those conversations and the name is now recognized around the country as one of the best firework shows in the nation.
The other thing that distinguished us was that we decided to do the event on July 3rd rather than the fourth. The fourth was already crowded with celebrations, so we thought it would be good for our restaurants, hotels and businesses to do it the day before the holiday. There wouldn’t be as much competition for our event and people would have the next day to be with their families or recover from the night before if they needed to.
The show brings a couple hundred thousand people in to the area and is the biggest night for business all year for many of our restaurants. All of the hotels do special rates for the night and that drives a lot of business to them also. Interestingly, a lot of locals get a hotel room and make a party of the evening and that way they don’t have to drive after the fireworks.
Traffic is always an issue and we have over 200 police officers working the intersections in Addison and surrounding communities after the fireworks. We only have a little over 70 people in our police department, so we hire officers from the county and surrounding cities to help us move the traffic. The problem is people assemble for the fireworks over a number of hours, but they all want to leave within 15 minutes of the fireworks ending. We just cannot accommodate all of those cars leaving at once when they took hours to accumulate before the event. The roadway capacity is the primary problem, not so much traffic direction, although we commit a lot of resources to traffic direction.
A number of years ago we started doing a movie after the fireworks to try to freeze some of that traffic for a period while we were working on moving as much traffic as possible. That has helped, but this year we are doing a concert with the band Emerald City. We are hopeful that people will find that fun and entertaining and that a larger number will hang out with us until the traffic clears a little. So, if you are in Addison Circle Park we would like you to stick around for the concert, but if you are at one of our great restaurants, have desert and coffee and visit a while and we will move the traffic as quickly as we can.
Kaboom Town is a great event and a really fun evening. We want everyone to have a safe and happy holiday, while we celebrate this wonderful nation and the independence and freedoms we enjoy. Have a super 3rd and 4th and remember,” We’re glad you are here!” Ron Whitehead, City Manager
