Celina’s Biggest Summer Bash Is One Week Away
For one Saturday each summer, Old Celina Park transforms into something that feels less like a municipal green space and more like a full-scale civic celebration. That Saturday is June 27, and Splash & Blast 2026 — free to attend, open to everyone — is bringing back the combination of daytime water fun, live country music, and a pyrotechnic finale that has made it the anchor event on Celina’s summer calendar.
This year carries extra weight. The festival is framed as a celebration of America250, the national semiquincentennial, layered on top of what is also Celina’s own 150th anniversary. The evening’s drone-and-fireworks show will mark both milestones simultaneously, which means the sky over 12670 FM 428 is going to be doing a lot of work after dark on June 27.
What the Day Looks Like
The Kids Zone is the gravitational center for younger attendees, built around water slides and a Ninja Nation Obstacle Course — a combination that tends to resolve most arguments about what to do for the afternoon. Arts and crafts stations round out the zone for kids who want something drier.
Food vendors will be on-site throughout the day, along with the kind of general festival footprint that makes Old Celina Park well-suited for this event. The park at 12670 FM 428 has enough open space to absorb a crowd without feeling compressed, and the layout allows families to stake out ground early, rotate through activities, and still find a decent vantage point for the finale.
Admission is free. That has been a consistent feature of Splash & Blast, and it matters in a city where growth has brought new residents who are still finding their footing in the community calendar. There is no ticket to buy, no wristband line to navigate — just showing up.
90 PROOF Country Takes the Stage at 6:30 PM
The live music portion of the evening belongs to 90 PROOF Country, which is scheduled to perform starting at 6:30 PM. The band steps into a role that shapes the entire atmosphere of the back half of the festival — the hours when the water slides wind down, the food lines thin out, and the crowd settles in for the long wait before dark.
A country act is a sensible fit for a Celina summer crowd, and 90 PROOF Country’s 6:30 start gives families enough time to find their spots on the grass before the set gets moving. The performance runs up to the drone-and-fireworks show, which begins at dark — so the evening has a natural arc from music to spectacle.
The Drone-and-Fireworks Show
The combined drone-and-fireworks finale is the newest wrinkle in what has traditionally been a fireworks event. Drone light shows have become more common at large municipal festivals over the past few years, and pairing one with conventional fireworks gives organizers a broader canvas. The America250 framing adds a commemorative dimension that separates this year’s show from prior editions.
The show begins at dark, which in late June in North Texas puts it somewhere around 9:00 PM or after. Families with young children who need an earlier exit should plan accordingly, though the Kids Zone and live music give plenty of reason to arrive well before the finale.
Old Celina Park as the Setting
Old Celina Park at 12670 FM 428 is one of the city’s more established outdoor gathering spaces, and Splash & Blast has helped define what the park can hold. The FM 428 location puts it within reach of both longer-established Celina neighborhoods and the newer residential developments that have come in along the city’s growth corridors. For newer residents in particular, an event like this — free, centrally located, built around shared public space — serves as an introduction to what Celina looks like when it gathers.
Parking and logistics details are available through the official event page, which is the best place to confirm any last-minute updates as June 27 approaches.
Putting It in Context
Celina has a stretch of summer programming this year that reflects a city investing in its public life. The Friday Night Market returns to Downtown Celina on July 10, running from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM with local vendors, artisans, and live music on the Square. The Celina Public Library’s Summer Reading Program is running concurrently through the break, with author visits and live performances built into the schedule alongside the reading component.
Splash & Blast sits at the front of that stretch, though, and the America250 overlay makes this particular edition distinct from what came before it. A combined national anniversary and local sesquicentennial, marked with a drone-and-fireworks show over a free community festival at a park that Celina families have been using for years — that is a fairly specific kind of summer evening, and it is happening in one week.
Old Celina Park, 12670 FM 428. Saturday, June 27. Free admission. 90 PROOF Country at 6:30 PM. Fireworks and drones at dark.
