Fair Park reinventing itself as year-round attraction

By Bill Hanna

billhanna@star-telegram.com

DALLAS -- Fair Park has long been known as home to the State Fair of Texas, the annual Texas-OU 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 stand-alone 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 shifted their focus elsewhere.

"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 would be 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."

Theme park opens in May

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 tropical-themed 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 admission price.

'It's a balancing act'

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 in December. It will maintain a smaller presence in Fair Park, but a future use for the main building has yet to be determined.

Also, the Museum of the American Railroad has ceased operations in Fair Park as it moves to Frisco, and the Women's Museum closed last year because of funding issues.

"It's a balancing act," said Daniel Huerta, executive general manager of Fair Park. "We want the museums for the added mix of offerings during the week. On the weekends, we're loaded."

Despite the losses of those museums, Fair Park's attendance increased in fiscal 2012 to 5,293,820, from 5,196,254 the previous year. Huerta said many weekend events such as the North Texas Irish Festival, Earth Day and Cinco de Mayo bring more people in on one weekend than some of the smaller museums' annual attendance. For example, the railroad museum averages 25,000 visitors annually.

As a comparison, Fort Worth's Cultural District museums and Will Rogers Memorial Center, where the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is held annually, drew slightly more than 3 million visitors in fiscal 2012.

Special shows also important

In 20 years, more than $260 million has been spent to restore and preserve art deco structures built for the 1936 Texas Centennial. Keeping the park cleaner and safer has also been vitally important, Holcomb said. Having a DART rail station at Fair Park's front door also helps entice people to the area.

As the focus has shifted from saving the buildings to bringing more events, Holcomb said, more thought is being given to what works best at Fair Park.

While events like 5-kilometer runs and festivals have become commonplace, special attractions like Cirque du Soleil and the Chinese Lantern Festival provide an opportunity to reach a far wider audience.

"I think the lantern festival is as cool as it sounds," Holcomb said. "It is so visually arresting it has gotten a lot of attention."

But Holcomb acknowledges that some people have never been to Fair Park, especially from Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

During the State Fair, or when there's a musical at the Fair Park Music Hall or a concert at Gexa Energy Pavilion, he gets calls from Tarrant County residents asking for directions.

"I'm always amazed," Holcomb said. "I get calls from people in Fort Worth and they need instructions on how to get here. There are a lot of first-timers who've never been here. But I think it's a good sign that they want to come check us out."

Bill Hanna, 817-390-7698

Twitter: @fwhanna

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