Courtesy of City of Garland
Audio By Carbonatix
This Saturday, the City of Garland will debut The Big Hat, an aptly named 20-foot-wide installation that will officially take the great honor of the biggest hat in Texas.
In perhaps the most stereotypically Texan spectacle of all, the “landmark” will also honor the city’s title as the Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas, which was legitimately passed in the Texas Legislature in 2013. Hard to believe we’re nostalgic for those silly, albeit harmless, days of politics now, right?
It’s as if people who have never been to Texas before compressed all that they know about our state into one event. Cowboys? Hats? Unnecessary spectacle? Everything’s bigger? You bet. And doing it during the opening weekend of the State Fair of Texas as a giant cowboy makes his annual boot scoot, at that.
Sometimes, we’re no better than parody. Installation of the hat began on Thursday and will be officially unveiled at the center of downtown Garland with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 27 at noon. It will be presented alongside a companion exhibition titled Hats Off to Garland, which will showcase the history of cowboys as told through Garland’s place in it. The Big Hat itself was designed by Fort Worth-based Mello Designs and Signs, remaining as Texan as it could possibly get.
If you’d like to see the state’s biggest hat yourself, admission to downtown Garland (520 W. State St.) is free and open to the public this Saturday. If you can’t make it, well, we’re pretty sure the 20-foot-wide behemoth isn’t going anywhere, so carve out some time for a stop at Rosalind Coffee or drop into Made Here, and you won’t miss it.
