Comofest 2024 features new structure, focus on celebrating the community safely

The annual Comofest celebration returned to West Fort Worth on Wednesday for the fourth year.

This year’s celebration came one year after a nearby mass shooting in the hours after Comofest left three people dead and eight others injured.

In the wake of that violence, Fort Worth police and organizers teamed up to create a new game plan to make sure the community could celebrate safely.

Whether bounce houses and hula hoops in the Kids Zone or some good music and food trucks for adults, this year’s Comofest had something for everyone.

The event began in 2021 to celebrate Fort Worth’s historically Black Como neighborhood over Independence Day.

But since the event’s inception, what’s happened after Comofest has drawn much of the attention.

“Comofest is a community celebration,” said Nolan Brooks with Legacy Lake Como. “We’ve had bad things happen in the past, and we’re just trying to give it a new narrative.”

In 2021, eight people were shot in the hours after Comofest several blocks away on Horne Street, when violence broke out as crowds of people lingered in the area after the event.

And last year, 11 people were shot on Horne Street at night after Comofest, with three of the victims dying from their injuries.

This year, organizers and police teamed up to bring a new structure to the event.

“You combat a negative with a positive, and we’ve been doing positive things,” said Brooks.

Following the traditional Comofest event at 9 p.m., a new event will begin: Como Homecoming, a neighborhood fundraiser on Horne Street.

The Fort Worth Police Department will block off the area for crowd control, saying it has a comprehensive protection plan that includes more officers on the street and advanced technology to protect visitors.

For organizers, the goal is to make this the headline: the Como community rings in the holiday safely in 2024.  

“So that’s how we do it, just by being positive,” said Brooks. “Being leaders in the community.”