Dancing Waters In Texas!

Courtesy Of Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation

Amarillo’s Palo Duro Canyon State Park serves as a stunning backdrop for Texas!, an outdoor drama that has run from June through August for the past 48 summers. After a nearby fire in 2011, the fireworks finale was put on hiatus, but audiences dwindled as a result. “Joe Batson, founder and donor, felt it was time to do something dramatically different to bring back the audience and respect our neighbors’ concerns,” says production manager Blaine Bertrand. Dancing fountains with projections were the solution.

Tanks providing 17,000 gallons of water and off-the-shelf fountainheads were acquired, and pipe was laid at the bottom of a natural run-off ditch, “all in 120°+ weather,” stresses Bertrand. Longtime friend to the foundation, and Amarillo native, Lowell Fowler of High End Systems, provided DL.3Fs to handle the projections, and Bill Lairamore at 4Wall in Las Vegas provided 60 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s. “Given the light color of the parched vegetation, the 7,000 lumens of the DLs read very well despite the 400-600' throws used on the 800'-tall canyon wall backdrop,” Bertrand adds.

That first homemade fountain show was so well received that a three-phase project started in 2012 to conclude with the show’s 50th Anniversary in 2015. “One of our long-time electrical engineers, Barry Vaniman, had worked with Disney on World of Color at Disney California Adventure® Park. He suggested we talk with Chuck Davis about what they learned to save us any heartache. I toured the operations of World of Color and watched the show three times. I was most impressed with how they managed to control the fountains like moving lights, which meant I could put controls and maintenance in a format that theatre technicians fresh on their career path could wrap their heads around. Chuck shared that the company, Fountain People, were the best to work with,” says Bertrand.

“I found out they were a Texas company, and I called on their patriotism to help us out. They have consulted on a multiphase design,” Bertrand adds. The 21 fountain effects run off of a single 1959 diesel pump in a ditch, with 12 static chasers, five single axis robots, three mega air launchers—each with an LED ring—and one 30' water projection screen. Pools should be built this coming fall, in order to move the effects out of the mud-filled ditch and give them individual variable frequency drive submersible pumps and additional fountain control.

The show now has four DL.3Fs and two DL.3s with Axon media servers. One High End Systems Hog 3 Full Boar on Art-Net runs the entire feature. “While we know we are stretching what the DLs can do,” admits Bertrand, “it does give us the option to not only project onto the cliff but also on the water screen.” The result is quite a dramatic addition to this long-running outdoor drama, which now has fireworks and fountains for its spectacular finale.