Would Lewisville do it again? Its mayor gives a qualified `yes'

Would Lewisville do it again? Its mayor gives a qualified `yes'

Reprinted with permission of The Dallas Morning News

By Russell Smith
Published 08-06-1989

Lewisville Mayor Donny Daniel was living at nearby Lake Dallas when the Texas International Pop Festival came to town.

"As a matter of fact, I was in Uncle Sam's Marine Corps,' Mayor Daniel says. "I happened to be home on leave the weekend of the concert and was out on the lake, as a matter of fact. I saw a lot of the campers and so forth.'

The young Marine did not attend the festivities.

"I was not a supporter of the hippie movement at the time,' he says. "I found it offensive, frankly.'

But if another music festival were to come Lewisville's way . . .

"I think we'd just have to take a good, hard look at the type of program and the sponsors and the folks that are responsible for putting it together, what kind of crowd-control problems we might anticipate.

"If we felt we could handle the thing properly,' the mayor says, "I really would not be that opposed to something of that type. I believe in the free-enterprise system, and I believe in people being able to put on events that appeal to the public.'

And what's the policy on skinny-dipping and pot-smoking these days?

"Actions that would be offensive to the public certainly would not be condoned,' says Mayor Daniel. "And I, personally, would not support those type of activities.'

But, he says, "given that there was not a total public outcry against the program, I think we'd have to look at it very seriously.'