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West Texas Supported Country And Tejano Concerts More Than Any Other At The Fair Park Coliseum For Literally Decades, But Higgs Indicated A Major Change Being Instituted During Each Year’s Concert Week Is The Focus On Variety.
Lubbock’s first Panhandle-South Plains Fair occurred in 1914. No fairs were held during World War Ii but , from 1921 to the present, the fair found the community and region concerned in livestock, culinary, stitching and craft competitions.
Thousands of people attend every year solely for these events.
Despite this, the first query Panhandle-South Plains Fair director Herb Higgs hears from friends and family every year is, “What concerts do you want to have this year?”
Without doubt, Lubbock’s fair directors have been told that same question annually since Elvis Presley arrived in 1956.
West Texas supported country and Tejano concerts more than any other at the Fair Park Coliseum for literally decades. But Higgs indicated a major change being instituted during each year’s concert week is the focus on variety.
The support shown for concerts by Boys II Men in 2009 and En Style last year are but two reasons, he said, although Higgs noted that he personally was blown away by the huge crowd and vocal support especially for Boys II Men.
Variety would not be possible, he pointed out, without a broader spectrum of music already offered on varied local rock radio stations.
Additionally, Higgs related, “When booking entertainment, you want to appeal to a wide slice of the community. That is done by making different musical offerings. Different days, different crowds.
“You need the crowd to ‘turn over’ and not just be more of the same, It is essential that we try to offer a little something for everyone.”
Concerts at the 2011 Panhandle-South Plains Fair, which runs from Sept. 23 to Oct. 1, will feature :
Kevin Fowler, country, Sept. 23.
The Amarillo local presently tops the Texas music chart. He has 5 studio albums and three singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
Grand Funk Railroad, classic rock, Sept. Twenty-four.
The Michigan-based rock group filled arenas in the 1970s, after being formed by Mark Farner and Don Brewer, The band clicked with “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home) .” Brewer still plays with the band.
Easton Corbon, country, Sept. 26.
A Florida native with an agribusiness degree from the College of Florida. He signed to Mercury Nashville Records in 2009 and released his first album in 2010. He has had two Number One hits : “A Little more Country Than That” and “Roll With It.”
Los Palaminos, Jesse Turner and Elida Reyna, Sept. Twenty-seven, Tejano, Tex-Mex, polkas, cumbias, etc . This could be the 1st time all 3 recording acts will perform together. They also will perform individually. Los Palaminos is from Uvalde. They signed with Sony Discos in 1994 and play polkas, rancheras, boleros, ballads and cumbias. Winners of American Grammy Awards and Latin Grammy Awards. Turner is lead vocalist for the band Siggno. Turner and Reyna both are Latin Grammy and two-time American Grammy winners.
Loverboy, classic rock, Sept. Twenty-eight.
Canadian rock band controlled by vocalist Mike Reno and guitar player Paul Dean, both of whom are still with the band. Hits include “Turn Me Loose” and “Working for the Weekend.” Performed at the Vancouver Olympic Games on Feb. Twenty-one, 2010. Inducted into Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
Hot Chelle Rae, pop-rock, Sept. 29.
Four-person band formed in Nashville in 2005. In 2007, they opened a sold out show for rapper Lil Jon, then gained exposure with a series of shows at South by Southwest in Austin. Signed to Jive Records in 2008. First album “Lovesick Electric” was released in 2009. Famous for platinum hit “Tonight Tonight.”
K-Ci & JoJo, American rhythm ‘n’ blues couple, Sept. 30.
North Carolina bros Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey and Joel “JoJo” Hailey. The duo is a spinoff, as both siblings were members of chart-topping RB group Jodeci. In 2010, K-Ci & JoJo signed exclusive deal with RB frontman Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds’ new label Soda Pop Records, distributed via Capitol.
Pennsylvania-based rock band released debut album in 2009 and has carved name for itself for near-nonstop touring, performing as many as two hundred and fifty shows a year. Sibling band members Arejay Hale (drums) and Lzzy Hale (guitar) were writing and performing in 1997 when they were ten and 13 respectively.
The Panhandle-South Plains Fair, by the way, never left the concert business.
It just appeared that way when, under Higgs’ leadership, the fair entered into ticket dispersal and advertising agreements with local radio stations.
This guaranteed that every concert at the Fair Park Coliseum during fair week would be offered free to the general public. It allowed “sponsoring” or “presenting” radio stations to dictate how most of the tickets would be given away.
The bottom line is the fair still pays most or all of the wages of bands performing at the Fair Park Coliseum.
Higgs explained the fair’s reasoning : “We have eliminated the concert tickets. But people who receive free concert tickets still must pay admission and parking costs when attending the fair.
“We feel that, by offering free concerts, it also gives us a chance to show patrons all of the other free shows and activities on the grounds. And if they like the activities at the fair, they may additionally want to eat at one of the booths run by a city nonprofit.”
Depending on whether or not they make a monetary commitment, local radio stations who become concert partners with the fair are delegated either “sponsors” or “presenters.”
Higgs pointed to the fact that only 2 radio stations have worked as concert “sponsors” annually that the system has been in place : Tejano station KXTQ Radio (Wizardry 93, 93.7 FM), and country station KLLL Radio (K-Triple-L, 96.3 FM).
Each pays a little of the wages of certain bands.
Eddie Moreno, KXTQ-FM program director, claimed, “Magic 93.7 has been a real fair show sponsor for almost 13 years. One of the great things about sponsoring our own show at the fair is it permits us to have absolute control over who the performer will be. Having this control gives us the liberty to feature artists that really represent what our station and Tejano music is all about. This is critical to us.”
Jay Richardson, KLLL VP and market manager, indicated that, “Because of the response to, and the turnout at, the KLLL shows each year, Herb allowed us to do the second show this year.”
Other radio stations continue helping the fair by offering heavy advertising for shows, but provide no money. Higgs claimed these are concert “presenters.”
All radio stations partnering with the fair use their own advertisers as locations where free tickets can be given away.
Concert sponsors are able to give away all of the tickets for their shows. Concert presenters are given 80 p.c of the tickets to give away. The leftover one thousand tickets are given away thru the fair office,writes tagza.com.
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