SAN ANTONIO – Thousands of people lined the streets of Downtown San Antonio Wednesday night to see the first Fourth of July fireworks show in several years.
The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and several local sponsors hosted The Stars and Stripes over San Antonio Independence Day Celebration in HemisFair Park.
Area resident Jesse Gutierrez was one of the estimated 270,000 attendees. Gutierrez dressed himself in red, white and blue from head to toe and brought his family to HemisFair Park to celebrate the birth of our nation.
It's the first time in years he didn't take them to Woodlawn Park to see fireworks. "I went there every year and it's become a bore," Gutierrez said.
He spent his youth coming to HemisFair and was thrilled to come back to celebrate independence day and his son's 19th birthday. "It's a wonderful place to come and have a good time with my family," Gutierrez said.
Thousands of families had the same idea. "I'm here with all my family, my dad my brother they all came down and it's been a good," said Ramon Garza. "I love being an American."
While the crowd was mostly local, there were a few people who came from other parts of Texas to see the show. One woman came Houston and loved it. "A little hot but fantastic cold beer good food we're good," she said.
There was no shortage of food as several food truck vendors set up to sell their mobile cuisine and it was a big hit.
"Business has been great, in about a an hour and half we've done about $1,000 worth so business is booming and I'm loving it," said Caira Spenrath, food truck worker.
It was so busy, the owner of the Smoke Shack had to cross off some menu items because he was running out. "Yeah we're selling out. Some items are more popular than others and we've been selling out which is good," said Brad Dawdy, Food Truck Owner.
Of course the main thing everyone came for was the fireworks and no one left disappointed. The fireworks lasted about 20 minutes and lit up the night sky.