The Pooch Parade is always a highlight of Easter in the Park, and last year, below, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence made friends. (Photos by Chuck Marcelo)
Oak Lawn Park has a new name, but the Easter celebration continues, with the Pooch Parade highlighting the day
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
For the first time, Easter in the Park takes place in Oak Lawn Park. The event’s not moving, but the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee did. So for the first time since the event began in 1967, no one has to feel like they’re not welcome in a park that has reverted to its original name.
Easter Sunday in Oak Lawn means pooches, picnics and entertainment, although the day isn’t the gay festival it once was. Today, people from around the city spread blankets on the lawn overlooking Turtle Creek to celebrate the beginning of spring.
This year, DJ Jennifer Miller will provide the music that begins at 1 p.m. And children are more welcome than ever, with the inclusion of an Easter egg hunt for children up to 10 years old that starts at 1:30 p.m. The Easter Bunny will be on hand for photos with the kids at 2:30 p.m.
Food trucks, including Pawtastic Snack for dog treats, will line up along Turtle Creek Boulevard, and a portion of their sales will go to support the Oak Lawn Park Conservancy.
Check-in to enter a dog in the pooch parade begins at 1 p.m., and the procession begins down Turtle Creek Boulevard at 2 p.m.
The entry fee is $15 per costume entry at the event, $10 if registered online by today (Friday, March 30). If multiple dogs are being judged together, that’s one $10 fee. Prizes will be awarded for Best Look-A-Like Costumes, Best Easter-Inspired Costume, Best Spring
Costume, Best Group Costume, Most Creative, Best Overall and Best Child & Dog Costume.
Winners will be selected by a panel of judges including Dallas Voice Publisher Leo Cusimano, Oak Lawn Park Conservancy President and CEO Gay Donnell and Laila Muhammad, who is a host of the syndicated show Morning Dose seen locally on CW33.
Dallas Animal Services, the SPCA and other rescue groups will be on hand for those interested in adopting a pet.
History of a tradition
Easter in the Park began in 1967 when the Dallas Symphony began a spring series performing in Dallas parks. Two years later, according to reports in the Dallas Morning News, Oak Lawn had become the place young people moved to, and what was then known as Lee Park was “overrun with hippies.” The afternoon was one of love and peace interrupted by a steady stream of jets — including 747s — flying overhead into the city’s only airport — Love Field.
By the mid-1970s, the hippies were gone and the gay community began moving into the Oak Lawn neighborhoods surrounding Lee Park. The symphony played each year and the annual picnic grew into an Easter ritual.
The pooch parade didn’t begin until the 1980s, as Oak Lawn became firmly established as the center of the LGBT community in Dallas. Others always attended Easter in the Park, but the gays were running the show.
The 1980s also was the beginning of the AIDS crisis, and the group that brought comfort to the community — the Turtle Creek Chorale — began performing along with the orchestra.
Staging a show with the symphony became more and more expensive. Although the Easter event was one of the symphony’s best-attended park concerts, it was also the most expensive because they had to pay overtime to orchestra members for performing on a holiday. And so Easter in the Park continued without the symphony.
Since the departure of the DSO, the music portion of the afternoon has been filled with singers, bands and, this year, a DJ. The Pooch Parade continues and has become the highlight of the afternoon.
