Los Fresnos Conjunto Festival Continues to Exceed Expectations

by Tony Vindell/LFN

The second annual Los Fresnos Conjunto Festival met the expectations organizers had hoped for and there is more to be done to take the event to another level.

More than fifty percent of the attendees were from Los Fresnos, Brownsville, Harlingen and San Benito areas while the rest came from several Texas cities outside the Rio Grande Valley and from the states of Washington, Florida and California.

The findings were obtained from a survey of 1,104 people interviewed during the three-day festival held Oct. 18-20.

A total of 15 conjunto bands performed and one of the groups that impressed the audience the most was the Los Fresnos school district Conjunto Halcon.

Although Sunday’s Oct. 20 rain hampered the festival somewhat, organizers estimate more than 2,000 people attended the festival.

The results of the festival were released by Rogelio Nunez during Monday’s meeting of Los Fresnos Community Development Corp., an organization that donated $5,000 in support of the event.

Nunez is the director of the Narciso Martinez Cultural Art Center, an entity that has been organizing the festival for the last 25 years in San Benito.

But because of financial issues, the festival was relocated to Los Fresnos in 2018.

“We were really pleased with how the Conjunto Festival went,” Nunez told the CDC board. “Last year was alright but this last one was a big improvement.”

He said people danced to their hearts’ content, the crowds were bigger particularly on the second day of the festival and gave a lot credit to the work of the local police department.

Enrique Juarez, the EDC board president, thanked Nunez for his report and said that having the festival is great for the city.

In spite of the festival success, Nunez said there still is room for improvement.

He said they would like to bring bigger entertainers in the conjunto world, but money is an issue as some of these groups charge thousands of dollars for a presentation.