DynoFest, Dino Dash drew tens of thousands to Epic Central, city staff say

Peter Syme, the library director, told the Grand Prairie City Council on May 6 that DynoFest 2025 drew large crowds to Epic Central and surrounding attractions. "Dynofest took place over about 17 days," Syme said, and the library hosted the event on March 15 with animatronic dinosaurs, hands-on activities and story times.

Why it matters: City staff said the event increased visitors and spending at Epic Central restaurants and hotels during spring break, producing what staff called record attendance and prompting discussion of operational changes to avoid crowding on single days.

Syme and event partners credited a multi‑agency effort. He said the three lead partners were the library, Epic Central and parks, arts and recreation; he also thanked the fleet department for fuel and staff support for a diesel-powered compressor used at the event. Zane King (Epic Central) and Christian App (parks, arts and recreation) joined Syme for the presentation.

City staff provided attendance and origin statistics for the event and the surrounding spring-break period. Syme reported a single-day figure of "10,900 during that 11 to 5" and said, "if you take the dates... A 58,000 people came to see this," excluding Epic Waters. He said 27 percent of those visitors were Grand Prairie residents, meaning the majority were from outside the city. For the three weeks of spring break, staff said Epic Central recorded "264,000 guests."

The presentation also covered a companion running event. Christian App said the third annual Dino Dash 5K and family run on March 22 saw registrations rise from 75 the previous year to a sold‑out field of 200 participants; with a professional race organizer this year, staff said they could consider increasing capacity to 300 if the dinosaurs return.

Council members and staff discussed operational lessons. Syme said that because the dinosaurs were on site for multiple weeks, crowding on some days created sharp but manageable surges and that staff will improve advance messaging so visitors understand the display is up for the full period rather than a single short event. Councilman Izano was singled out in a light‑hearted exchange about participating in a future costume appearance.

Staff also noted ancillary events that benefited from the increased visitorship: a PizzaFest event drew an estimated 11,000 attendees, and restaurants at Epic Central reported long waits and record sales during the spring‑break period.

City staff said they will refine logistics and public information for future multiweek attractions at Epic Central but did not present or request new ordinance changes or budget actions at this meeting.

The council acknowledged the presentations and moved to the next agenda items.