Lubbock’s First Panhandle-South Fields Fair Occurred In 1914.,No Fairs Were Held During World War II However From 1921 To The Present, The Fair Found The Community And Area Involved In Cattle, Culinary, Stitching And Craft Competitions.

Lubbock’s first Panhandle-South Plains Fair took place in 1914. No fairs were held during World War Ii from 1921 to the present, the fair found the community and region involved in cattle, culinary, sewing and craft competitions.

Crowds of people attend every year solely for these events.

Despite this, the 1st question Panhandle-South Plains Fair director Herb Higgs hears from family and friends each year is, “What concerts do you want to have this year?”

Doubtless, Lubbock’s fair directors have been informed that same question every year 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 importance on diversity.

The support shown for concerts by Boys II Men in 2009 and En Style last year are but two reasons, he revealed, though Higgs noted that he personally was blown away by the huge crowd and vocal support particularly for Boys II Men.

Variety would not be possible, he pointed out, without a broader spectrum of music already offered on sundry local rock radio stations.

In addition, Higgs related, “When booking entertainment, you need to appeal to a wide wedge of the community. That is done by making different musical offerings. Different days, different crowds.

“You require the crowd to ‘turn over’ and not just be more of the same, It is critical that we try and offer something for everyone.”

Concerts at the 2011 Panhandle-South Plains Fair, which runs from Sept. 23 to Oct. One, will incorporate :

Kevin Fowler, country, Sept. Twenty-three.

The Amarillo local presently tops the Texas music chart. He has five studio albums and 3 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 University 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, and so on. This will be the first time all three recording acts will perform together. They also will perform individually. Los Palaminos hails 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. 28.

Canadian rock group led by vocalist Mike Reno and guitarist Paul Dean, both of whom are still with the band. Hits include “Turn Me Loose” and “Working for the Weekend.” Performed at the Vancouver Olympics on February. Twenty-one, 2010. Inducted into Canadian Music Hall-Of-Fame in 2009.

Hot Chelle Rae, pop-rock, Sept. Twenty-nine.

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. Debut album “Lovesick Electric” was released in 2009. Best known for platinum hit “Tonight Tonight.”

K-Ci & JoJo, American rhythm ‘n’ blues duo, Sept. Thirty.

North Carolina brothers Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey and Joel “JoJo” Hailey. The couple is a spinoff, as both bros were members of chart-topping RB group Jodeci. In 2010, K-Ci & JoJo signed exclusive handle RB vocalist Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds’ new label Soda Pop Records, distributed via Capitol.

Pennsylvania-based rock band released first album in 2009 and has carved name for itself for near-nonstop touring, performing as many as 250 shows a year. Sibling band members Arejay Hale (drums) and Lzzy Hale (guitar) were writing and performing in 1997 when they were 10 and thirteen respectively.

The Panhandle-South Plains Fair, BTW, 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 assured that each 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 base line is the fair still pays most of the wages of bands performing at the Fair Park Coliseum.

Higgs explained the fair’s reasoning : “We have eliminated the concert tickets. But those that receive free concert tickets still must pay admission and parking charges when attending the fair.

“We feel that, by giving free concerts, it also gives us an opportunity to show patrons all of the other free shows and activities on the grounds. And if they like the activities at the fair, they might also want to eat at one of the booths run by a town nonprofit.”

Dependent on whether or not they make a monetary commitment, local radio stations who become concert partners with the fair are designated either “sponsors” or “presenters.”

Higgs suggested that only 2 radio stations have worked as concert “sponsors” every year that the system has been in place : Tejano station KXTQ Radio (Magic 93, 93.7 FM), and country station KLLL Radio (K-Triple-L, 96.3 FM).

Each pays some of the wages of certain bands.

Eddie Moreno, KXTQ-FM programme director, claimed, “Magic 93.7 has been a true fair show sponsor for almost thirteen years. One of the nice things about sponsoring our own show at the fair is it allows us to have complete control over who the performer will be. Having this control gives us the liberty to feature artists that actually represent what our station and Tejano music is all about. This is very important to us.”

Jay Richardson, KLLL vice chairman and market manager, indicated that, “Because of the response to, and the turnout at, the KLLL shows annually, Herb permitted us to do the second show this year.”

Other radio stations continue to help the fair by offering serious 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 permitted to give away all of the tickets for their shows. Concert presenters are given eighty p.c of the tickets to give away. The leftover one thousand tickets are given away through the fair office,writes tagza.com.