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Boys watch the fireworks show at Light Up Arlington on June 29, 2024 in Arlington. The annual Independence Day event brings in over 65,000 visitors. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)
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At 9:49 p.m. Saturday, Adam Lopez stood between tens of thousands of people and a parking lot of fenced-off explosives in downtown Arlington.

One eye was on his phone, the other on his watch, counting the seconds.

“All right,” he said into the speaker as his watch hit 9:50 p.m. “Go ahead and start.”

The first firework whistled into the air.

The spectacle was the title attraction of the 16th annual Light Up Arlington. One of the city’s annual Independence Day celebrations, the event is often downtown Arlington’s biggest night of the year, regularly bringing in over 65,000 visitors with food trucks and live music.

For Lopez, a Parks Department official and the main coordinator for Light Up Arlington, the night represents the culmination of over six months of planning and coordination to transform the busy downtown into a walkable, fairlike setting that accommodates the crowds and festivities. 

He started his Saturday at 6 a.m. — at the end of what had already been an 80-hour workweek. Get up. Get donuts for the crew. Get to work. 

Adam Lopez, a Parks Department official, directs his team to barricade streets in downtown Arlington on June 29, 2024, for the Light Up Arlington celebration. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

Vendors need directions. Streets need blocking. First aid stations need supplies. And in unfortunate years, abandoned cars need to be towed. 

Lopez described the operation as “putting out a bunch of small fires.” 

Those fires hit fever pitch around 2 p.m., a logistical headache of an hour, when different departments worked to simultaneously close most downtown streets without causing any accidents.

“I’m doing three things at once,” Lopez said intermittently, as his golf cart screeched down Center Street in response to one of the many calls for help crackling from his radio. 

First, a quick stop by the theater to help the Arlington Fire Department push up a blockade. Then a zoom across downtown to help a tow truck fully block Abram Street, on the way pulling up next to a lost food truck to help the driver navigate through the maze of closing roads. 

“I just talked to the police department,” he said in the receiver, threading his vehicle between two roadblocks. “They’re starting their main closures, everybody, so stand by. Zone leaders keep ready; we’re going to start pushing out some of these water barriers.”

Adam Lopez, a Parks Department official, spouts directions for his team into a radio on June 29, 2024, for the Light Up Arlington celebration. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

All the while, a long line of cars grew behind Lopez, ready to follow him to the nearest exit. Their stressed drivers were at a loss for how they became trapped in the no-driving zone. Most likely, they slipped through a crack in the system on West Main Street, which was a few minutes late to close due to a miscommunication.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” Lopez sang with a smile, the 100-degree sun reflecting off his glasses.

To accommodate the festivities, which take up 64 acres of downtown, the city needed to make up to 300 parking spaces off-limits. 

Two vendors talk on a closed-off street during Light Up Arlington on June 29, 2024. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

As the day went on, Lopez grew more concerned about people who snuck their cars in and parked in off-limit spaces. They’d be trapped until at least midnight. He wasn’t as worried about how attendees would later find parking.

“People always find a way,” he said.

David Perez, a Fort Worth resident and University of Texas at Arlington alumnus, said he got lucky. He knew the area and found a prime downtown spot right as another car was pulling out of it.

Children play in the suds of a Bubble Bus during Light Up Arlington on June 29, 2024. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

Eddie Ti, an Arlington resident and longtime Light Up attendee, said he followed a crowd of cars to a bootleg spot in a UT Arlington parking lot. 

“It’s Saturday,” Ti said, shrugging. What student would need it?

For Cordell Carson, a Fort Worth resident, things were a bit more challenging. Carson said he circled the area for 10 minutes before “getting lucky” with a space outside a nearby information center.

Cordell Carson Jr. uses a portable fan in front of Levitt Pavilion during Light Up Arlington on June 29, 2024. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

Over at the fireworks launch site outside Arlington’s municipal court building, pyrotechnic specialists spent the afternoon on the tedious task of loading approximately 2,500 firework shells into launch tubes. 

They sat comfortably over the bed of cannons as they untangled the daisy chains of explosives. In a few hours, the launch tubes and paper balls of powder would produce the biggest spectacle of the night. But at the moment, they were expensive, potentially deadly pieces of merchandise.

A pyrotechnics crew loads fireworks into a trailer full of launch tubes on June 29, 2024, for the Light Up Arlington celebration. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

Each shell was labeled for a designated spot on the trailer of launching tubes, so every boom in the show would explode in sync with the preprogrammed accompanying music.

“I don’t tell people I handle fireworks, I tell them I handle explosives,” said Josh Silvas, a pyrotechnician with Pyrotex, the company the city contracts with for Light Up Arlington. 

Silvas, like most Pyrotex employees, works with fireworks part time. Independence Day is the busiest time of the year.

Fireworks decorate the roof of Arlington’s municipal court building on June 29, 2024. The “ground effects” are smaller than the fireworks in the main launch tube trailer, so they need to be launched from a higher level to reach the same altitude. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

The rest of the year, the team stays busy with firework spectacles such as gender reveals, weddings and sports games. To book fireworks for the Fourth of July, the city has to be in contact with Pyrotex by August the year before, said Nathan Swanson, a show lead for the company.

Fireworks shows have a base cost of around $1,500 per minute, Swanson said. Rocket type, “extra fluff” and location can add to the price tag. 

Arlington’s show is typically about 22 minutes, though this year it squeezed the same amount of explosions into 18 minutes, so Swanson estimated it cost at least $33,000.

For Lopez, the Parks Department official, the work wasn’t over after the fireworks finale. 

As the crowds packed up their blankets and lawn chairs, he and the rest of the Parks Department got back to work, waiting for the “all clear” from Fire Department officials to pack up their own roadblocks and street signs.

A team of pyrotechnicians prepares a trailer of fireworks outside Arlington’s municipal court building for Light Up Arlington on June 29, 2024. The building was undergoing construction, which created several challenges for organizing a safe show. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

Lopez was hoping to clock out by 2 a.m. — if he was lucky. 

In 2023, a woman started giving birth next to the launch site right after the grand finale, delaying the pack-up process by an hour.

This year, when the first fireworks lit up Arlington’s sky, Lopez paused to watch the show. Lying on the hot concrete he’d cleared of cars earlier, the moment was the only real break of his 20-hour workday.

Lopez thought back to advice he received from his predecessor when he took up organizing the night two years ago.

“You have to stop and watch the fireworks,” he said. “If you don’t, what are you doing this for?”

Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.