A Little Rain Couldn’t Stop the Fireworks at Liberty Fest

On Sunday, July 2, the east PlazAmericas parking lot turned into bustling festival grounds for the second weekend in a row. This time, it was for Liberty Fest—the Southwest Management District’s signature annual event.

Vendors sold everything from Mexican street corn to Korean BBQ to handcrafted earrings. An eighteen-year old west Houston high school graduate even distributed copies of his recent sci-fi/fantasy novel.

Kids could ride a train, rock climb, or play in bouncy houses. HPD gave tours of police vehicles, and their new Lion Dance Team performed onstage.

Other performances included Mariachi Extraordinaire, Mexican Variety Dancers, Texas Brass Ensemble (playing tunes like the Star Wars theme song), and She Wolf Shakira Tribute, a music show led by singer Diana Torres.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee made an appearance, along with Mayor Sylvester Turner and District J Council Member Edward Pollard.

A drizzle, which drove festivalgoers to shelter under tent canopies, turned into a brief hard rain. But the sky soon cleared.

At 9 PM, the night ended with a classic Fourth of July experience. For nearly twenty minutes, rapid fireworks peppered the sky to songs like “Proud to Be an American.” By 9:13, the booms were chest-reverberating. Around 9:18, the grand finale exploded to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

After the last firework, eight grey puffs of smoke, already unfurling, hovered over a big smoke cloud that drifted across the roof of the PlazAmericas mall. The sky quieted—hopefully, just until next year.

Read about the previous weekend’s H-Town Global Festival here.

Authors

Tyess Korsmo, the Sharpener's editor-in-chief, moved to Sharpstown in 2019 to earn his Master of Liberal Arts at HCU, where he now teaches English and history. He also teaches English in a maximum-security prison.

Kace’ Conaway is a legal studies major at Houston Christian University. She has always had a deep love for writing and is grateful for the opportunity to share that love with the Sharpener and its readers. She hopes her work will have a positive impact on campus and in the Sharpstown community.