To prepare for a awaited comeback, organizers of the Texas Pinball Festival acquired more than 400 pinball machines to accommodate a lot of people for the festival according to an NBC 5 DFW article from March 25. They say,
“The Texas Pinball Festival will make a comeback in Frisco this weekend after its last two events were canceled by the pandemic.
The festival will feature more than 400 pinball machines — vintage and new — as well as classic arcade games, which organizers will set to free play. Guests can participate in adult or child pinball tournaments, and the DFW Pinball group will host a flea market and swap meet of collectibles and memorabilia, according to a release from Visit Frisco.”
The organizers made sure that they get the best machines for their event but it doesn’t end there. They also took time to bring a theme and different games for the event according to a Texas Highways article from March 24 which reports,
“This year the company will be debuting its own Weird Al’s Museum of Natural Hilarity at the conference.
The Texas Pinball Festival is truly a global event now, with manufacturers and developers coming in from Australia and Europe and coast to coast. Just like the early days of SXSW, this conference is where the deals are made and the course for the trends in the industry are set. And just like SXSW, it is both an industry gathering and a fan happening, which brings us back to the games themselves.
“So, I really do think there’s been a resurgence,” McKinney says. “When we started out, it was maybe 60 machines and 400 people. Now we have well over 400 machines and probably 5,000 attendees over the weekend. And there’s been a big change in the demographics. Frankly, at first, it was pretty much all middle-aged white guys. Now we’ve got a good mix of women and children and a whole lot of 20-somethings.”
Contestants, ranging from pro to rank amateurs hoping for a hot streak, can compete on the machines for cash prizes in a variety of tournament tiers, from accredited professional down to a kids’ bracket.”
The highly-anticipated festival will take place on March 25-27 in Embassy Suites Dallas in Frisco.