WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - The City of Wichita Falls is hard at work preparing for this year’s Fourth in the Falls.

For the first time ever, the city and Sheppard Air Force Base have joined forces to host this event.

Usually they alternate between hosting it at SAFB and the MPEC, but after many conversations between the two, they decided to bring everyone together for what they hope is the largest Fourth in the Falls yet.

“This year, there were a lot of conversations and we decided to join forces and co-host this event,” Lindsay Barker, Director of MPEC and Communications Marketing in Wichita Falls said. “It has been an honor and a lot of fun to get to plan this event with them.”

Lots of fun, laughter and of course, fireworks. That is what the Fourth in the Falls brings to families every year. With plenty of food, music and fun things to do for all ages, this year won’t be any different.

“We have got Blue Water Highway, who is the opening act,” Barker said. “Then Jason Bowlan and the Stragglers, they will go on about eight. That is a free concert for the event attendees. There will be an indoor kids area with inflatables. You can play on the nerf gun inflatable. There is a little train for the little ones, there is a cake walk and a car show.”

The indoor car show will feature 30-35 classic cars on display. These are just a few of the festivities planned for the holiday, and SAFB officials are also preparing to bring some cool and fun things to the event.

“Sheppard is actually bringing out some demonstrations,” Barker said. “They are going to have a static display setup and kind of talk a little bit about the task that they do on a day-to-day basis, show some of the equipment and the different parts of their mission, so that will be a neat part.”

Barker expects this year will draw a larger crowd than normal.

“Sheppard will be busing over their airmen and then combined with our local community and hopefully some of the surrounding towns that may attend, so yeah we expect it to be a big crowd,” Barker said.

The event begins at 5 p.m. with fireworks expected to start around 10 p.m. If all goes well, SAFB and the city will continue to host the Fourth in the Falls together rather than alternate every year.

Copyright 2022 KAUZ. All rights reserved.