Welcome to the Pinball News coverage of this year’s Texas Pinball Festival.
We are back in Frisco at the Frisco Convention Center and the adjoining Embassy Suites hotel.
We got to Texas on Monday, flying in to Houston so we could visit David van Es and the team at Barrels of Fun, before driving north via Multimorphic’s factory in Round Rock to meet Gerry Stellenberg and the crew.
After a cold start to the week, things are warming up nicely, with temperatures for the show weekend expected to peak at around 37°C (98.6°F).
Wednesday
We arrived in Frisco on Wednesday evening, although the show doesn’t open to the public until Friday afternoon. Even so, set-up in the main hall had begun.
Texas Pinball Festival organiser, Paul McKinney, had made numerous changes to all aspects of the show, from the floor layout to the events schedule.
You can hear him talk about those and his plans for this year’s Texas Pinball Festival in our February Pinball Industry News PINcast, available right now in our PINcasts section.
The theme of this year’s show was ‘dragons’. The event logo was based on a dragon, dragon-themed pinballs have their own section of the show, dragons are on the show merchandise, while dragon sculpts were visible around the venue, as we will see a little later.
A new event, TechDay, ran throughout Wednesday. This allowed machine owners to bring their pinball to the show where an allocated technician would diagnose and, where possible, repair the faults there and then. The machine’s owner was involved in the repairs, so that they could learn the fault-finding and remedial techniques for themselves.
A ticket for TechDay cost $80, while replacement components were charged for at a discounted rate.
Thursday
By Thursday morning the main show hall has begun to fill out, with more machines and stand furniture arriving and the show banners hung from the ceiling.
The loading doors were in constant use and vehicles disgorged their contents before quickly vacating the space to allow the next exhibitor to enter.
The show floor plan was displayed by the entrance, guiding machine owners and vendors to their specific areas.
The show isn’t confined to the main hall though. There are multiple machines and vendors in the corridor outside.
There is another, lesser-seen area for the Texas Pinball Festival, which is located upstairs in the Convention Center. This is where the many pinball tournaments are held. These are run by the Tournament Directors, Elizabeth Dronet, Kevin Stone, Louis Marx and Ken Kemp,
When we visited the room on Thursday around midday, most of the tournament machines were yet to arrive.
Although this year’s Texas Pinball Festival had yet to begin, banners were already announcing the dates for the 2027 show.
We’ll be back shortly with much more from the set-up and the opening of the 2026 Texas Pinball Festival in Frisco, Texas. So, check back here at Pinball News for all the latest updates.
