"Life needs to be celebrated," said Sherry Cheng, the Freese and Nichols landscape architect who managed the Heroes Park project. "Although this is a memorial park, it should also be a place where people gather, celebrate and reflect on the important things in life."
Her quote explains the plan for the expanded Heroes Park next to City Hall. The city unveiled the park on June 26 during Stars and Guitars. Most people first saw it in the dark, during fireworks and a concert. This fall is the first time Colleyville's regular civic events run through it in daylight, and in October that means costume contests, a petting zoo and Trunk-or-Treat a few steps from bronze statues and memorial walls. The designers meant for those two things to share the space.
Why a memorial ended up with a performance pavilion
Colleyville already had a Heroes Park next to City Hall. It was small, and the city decided it had become "too small and isolated" for what the community needed. In 2023, city leaders formed a committee of residents, veterans and community advocates to plan a larger tribute. The committee included Gold Star families and visited veterans memorials around North Texas to study what worked.
Land made the expansion possible. Development plans for a nearby site changed, which let the city enlarge the park and finish its civic campus. The rebuilt park covers 1.8 acres, and Freese and Nichols calls it "the centerpiece of Colleyville's Town Center and civic campus."
The design team described its main challenge as making one space work for quiet reflection and for "thousands of people gathered for community celebrations." They built both into the layout. A permanent performance pavilion, two shade structures, an entry portal and a large event lawn sit just beyond the memorial plaza. Water walls soften the sound from the stage. The firm wrote that "visitors attending a concert naturally encounter the memorial."
That is why moving the Harvest Festival here changes more than its address.
The Harvest Festival changes addresses
In 2024 and 2025, the city listed the Harvest Festival at the Plaza at City Hall, 90 Main Street. This year the festival page lists City Hall at 100 Main Street, and the citywide calendar names the venue "Heroes Park at City Hall."
The date is Saturday, Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and admission is free. The schedule includes Trunk-or-Treat, prize games, a petting zoo, face painting and fall crafts. The costume contests are the only fixed times in the day:
- 10:30 a.m.: ages 3 and under
- 11 a.m.: ages 4 to 7
- 11:30 a.m.: ages 8 and up
- Noon: pets
With multiple kids, or kids plus a dog, you will be at the contest area for most of the first two hours. Trunk-or-Treat is in the parking lot behind City Hall. Local businesses and nonprofits hand out candy from decorated trunks, and a winning trunk is announced during the event. Food trucks take cash or cards.
Free parking is available in the City Hall south lot and at City Park. The festival page does not include a shuttle plan or a road-closure map, so plan as if there won't be either.
A new market rides along, with one date question
This year the festival adds the first Harvest Market. The city runs it with ART ALGΣBRA, a gallery and latte bar at 1001 Glade Road that opened in Colleyville in July. The city announced the partnership on Sept. 1 and asked local makers, small businesses, food vendors and farmers to apply for booths.
The schedule is still unclear. The NE Tarrant Record reported on Sept. 2 that ART ALGΣBRA separately posted dates for a "Harvest Art Fest and Food Truck Alley" on Monday, Oct. 19, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The paper said it was unclear whether the market runs beyond the Oct. 17 festival or on its own schedule. The city's festival page is the safest guide to Saturday. Check ART ALGΣBRA's channels before going on Monday or Tuesday.
There is local evidence for a market like this. A city parks and recreation report noted that the Senior Center's first Craft Show and Market on May 29 drew 30 vendors and close to 200 shoppers, and organizers suggested moving future editions to a Saturday. The Harvest Market launches alongside a Saturday festival, whatever its schedule turns out to be after that.
What sits between the petting zoo and the food trucks
On Oct. 17, the route from the lawn to the trucks passes these features:
- Six memorial walls covering major periods of American military history, with timelines, maps, photographs and quotations. Each wall also shows Colleyville's connection to that era, and the last one looks toward lasting peace.
- Six bronze statues, one for each branch of the U.S. military, standing in formation over the memorial plaza and saluting the national, state and military service flags.
- History walls that trace Colleyville's growth from a rural farming community to the city it is now.
- Secondary memorial walls with engraved plaques for veterans and local heroes.
- The flame at the center of the memorial plaza.
The flame has a backstory. City leaders wanted an eternal flame, but an open flame next to City Hall raised safety concerns. The design team built a custom metal sculpture lit from below and the sides so it looks like a flickering flame. If a child at Trunk-or-Treat asks whether it's real fire, the answer is no, and the reason is how close it sits to City Hall.
The rest of the season, by venue
The city now holds most of its fall calendar at the new park. One event goes elsewhere.
National Night Out, Tuesday, Oct. 6, at Heroes Park. Free food, games and activities, with Colleyville Police, Fire and Public Works staff on hand and public safety and SWAT vehicles to explore. The listing gives 5:30 to 8 p.m. The same page lists 8:30 p.m. as the end time in a notice that the Saturday Fire Department Open House was canceled because of forecast rain. That notice says the firefighters and fire truck will be at National Night Out instead. If your kids missed the open house, Tuesday is when they can see the trucks.
Harvest Festival, Saturday, Oct. 17, at Heroes Park. Covered above.
Haunted Trails, Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Colleyville Nature Center. This is the one fall event away from City Hall. The Nature Center opens at 6:30 p.m. with food trucks, a DJ and treats, and the haunted walk runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The city recommends it for preteens and older because this year is "more trick than treat." Families with kids young enough for the 10:30 a.m. costume contest will probably find the festival a better fit than the trail.
Christmas Tree Lighting, Saturday, Nov. 21, at Heroes Park. It runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Santa and Mayor Bobby Lindamood arrive on Main Street at 5:45 p.m. The evening also has photos with Santa, food trucks, choir performances, balloon artists, Jingle Bell Junction, Santa's mailbox and reindeer. This event moved less than the festival did. In 2025 it was already listed at City Hall, 100 Main Street, so this year is mostly the first lighting with the finished park behind it.
The city's events page also lists Heroes Park as the venue for Boot Scootin' Saturday Night, which turns the park into a country dance hall, and for the Library Summer Reading Program Finale. The pavilion was built for regular use.
The plaques are still being added
Heroes Park opened with an inaugural class of 193 honorees, most of them veterans with community ties, each recognized on an individual plaque. The city's nominations page says the park has space for more than 400 individual heroes. The park also honors community heroes whose work shaped Colleyville, not only military service.
That leaves room for more than 200 more plaques, and nominations come from people who know the names. If someone in your family belongs on those walls, the nominations page on colleyville.com is where to start, and the Harvest Festival on Oct. 17 is a good time to walk the secondary walls and see how the existing plaques are set up.
If a fall Saturday at City Hall has you thinking about how your Colleyville home fits your plans for the next few years, I'm glad to talk it through. Nathan Karns offers a no-pressure conversation about your home's value and your options. Schedule a Consultation when you're ready.
