Street Festival Highlights Entertainment & Community Growth
The 17th Annual Texas Street Festival comesat an opportune time for a community seeing its best retail and residentialgrowth in many years.
The state’s largest Labor Day Weekend festival southof San Antonio will feature a stellar lineup of entertainment artists that isheadlined by Los Herederos de Nuevo Leon and will also include carnivalrides and a car show. The Saturday Aug. 30 event also represents something of ashowcase for a growing Mercedes.
Festival visitors who shop at the Rio Grande ValleyPremium Outlets will see an adjacent Shops At Mercedes retail area emerging atthe intersection of Expressway 83 and Mile 1 ½ East Road. Add in 15 housing developmentsand subdivisions currently under construction or being planned and city leadersare rightfully proud to blend in holiday entertainment with pride in theircommunity.
“The festival provides an opportunity to promote Mercedesand highlight all of the new businesses that are developing,” said Hector RochaJr., the president of the Mercedes Chamber of Commerce board. “Some people liketo take jabs at Mercedes, but we’re seeing growth and there’s much more of iton the way.”
The festival itself is formidable in its own right. Itwill take place in downtown Mercedes on Texas Avenue. A crowd of over 20,000 festivalgoersis expected at the Aug. 30th event. Admission to the event is free.Gates will open at 3 p.m. with nonstop entertainment until midnight. The mix offestivities features live music entertainment from David Lee Garza, Jaime De Anda,Ram Herrera, Efrain Tijerina and Chris Marshall. There will be kiddie carnivalrides, a Jurassic RGV dinosaur show, and wrestling filling out the bill.
There will be a number of food vendors on hand aswell. The event is organized by the Mercedes Chamber of Commerce in conjunctionwith the city’s local government and police department.
“The event seeks to do two major things,” Rocha said.“There’s the colloboration between the chamber and the city in highlightingdowntown Mercedes and working to offer a major entertainment event for free.”
‘Huge Learning Curve’
For Rocha, this is his inaugural Street Festival asthe chamber board’s president.
He took the leadership role in January. He was previouslya board member, but the volume of work it takes to put on a large one-dayfestival was an eye-opening experience.
“I had no idea the amount of work that went into it,”Rocha said. “It has been a huge learning curve. It makes you appreciate all ofthe work that went into it and the people who came before you in starting thisevent and making it what it is today.”
The Street Festival also has an educational component.Profits from the event are reinvested back into the community in funding scholarshipsfor graduating seniors from area high schools. It’s a win in every way for a communityand its signature holiday event.
“It is undeniable that this is one of the largestLabor Day festivals in Texas and the biggest one south of San Antonio,” Rochasaid. “It has become a major event in our region.”
For more information go to the Facebook pages of theTexas Street Festival and the Mercedes Chamber of Commerce. The chamber’s webpage of http://mercedeschamber.com also provides additional information aboutthe festival.
- Ric Cavazos
