The past year gave us many opportunities to evaluate and change the way we do things at the Terrell Chamber of Commerce. For instance, the July 4th celebration offered new attractions and a new location. After decades of hosting fireworks at Ben Gill Park, we relocated to Terrell Municipal Airport and added hot air balloons to the mix.
Many questioned why we would move it from the park. Well, the answer is simple…the airport is a safer location. There are no apartment complexes, school buildings or homes that get covered in smoldering fireworks debris. Plus, the airport gives us plenty of room to spread out.
With the new venue some things went really well and some things, not so much.
The good:
An estimated 8,000 people came out to celebrate Independence Day with us at the airport on an unseasonably mild July 4. The hot air balloon glow and tethered rides were a big hit, and we look forward to having them again. The Daughters of the American Revolution Kings Fort Chapter had a nice crowd to witness their flag retirement ceremony. And the No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum (BFTS) had a lot of first-time visitors, including many who did not know the Museum existed. Of course, the fireworks show continues to be the highlight of our celebration.
The bad:
Of course, we knew with the new location and added attractions there would be some lessons learned. We came away with a lot of those and are already planning for improvements next year. We need a much larger selection of food trucks to handle the number of attendees we had. Additional parking and a new entry and exit plan will help make this a celebration worthy of remembering the Founding Fathers.
Overall, we have received great feedback about the new location. The potential growth and addition of attractions to this event excites us. We will continue to collaborate with the City of Terrell and the No. 1 BFTS Museum to continually improve this event year over year. We hope to see you at the Terrell Municipal Airport again next year on Monday, July 4.