Posted on by Xevious

Texas Stadium Demolition

Our morning started off at about 4 am when my son and I drove out to Irving for this morning’s spectacle. We arrived about 5:30 and parked on a side street near Maryland and the 183 frontage road. There were people who had been there all night for the last tailgate party. We picked a spot right on the corner and I set up my tripod and camera. There was not much else to do but wait. There were cameras everywhere. People were selling t-shirts. The official party was on the other side of the stadium, downwind I might add.About 15 minutes before 7 they closed highway 183. Up until this point the police had done a good job of keeping the crowds back behind the service road. On some unseen sign the crowds all rushed forward down into the valley that was 183. I saw that the service road provided a nice unobstructed view. I moved to the other side of the street and set up my tripod again.

Right at 7am the fireworks started on the east end of the stadium which was to my right. It was an impressive display that lasted about a minute. I had been shooting a bit of video up to this point and decided to take this opportunity to change memory cards. I have two 16GB cards but I did not know how much I had used of the first card. As I was switching cards the fireworks stopped and there was an eerie silence interrupted only by cheers from the crowd.

Then there were 10 more smaller fireworks coming from the other end of the stadium near the VIP area. This was the countdown. I started recording again. For the next 30 seconds we watched the progression of explosions walk around the stadium. The sound was incredible. We could feel each concussion wave hit us even from a half kilometer away.

Video was shot using my Canon T1i EOS digital camera with a 35-105mm lens. 1280×720 24fps H.264, Linear PCM

One Reply to “Texas Stadium Demolition”

  1. One of my memories of Texas Stadium was going to the INXS concert, September 17, 1988. I had given up my Aggie Football tickets for that weekend and drive up to see INXS in concert along with 12 hours of music. The “opening bands” were Guns N’ Roses, Ziggy Marley, Iggy Pop and The Smithereens. As that weekend approached so did a hurricane. The Aggie football game was postponed but the concert was not. The hurricane hit Houston that morning and worked its way up the state. By noon it had reached Irving and was little more than a strong short lived storm. The rain poured in the open roof. The fans started using the football field like a giant Slip-n-Slide. The rain passed and the concert was back on.

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