The City of Victoria’s first-ever Tejas Fest will be a party for the history books as we invite residents and visitors to downtown Victoria Oct. 4-5 for a free celebration of everything that makes our community “True to Tejas.”
In addition to being part of Victoria’s yearlong bicentennial celebration, Tejas Fest represents a return to the tradition of downtown community festivals following the departure of Bootfest, which was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 and then postponed to allow us to focus on the bicentennial and the results of the new branding study.
Because this inaugural festival will be such a special occasion, we really want to knock it out of the park and make it bigger and better than our previous festivals. Tejas Fest represents the City’s largest-ever investment in live music and in Tejano music, with national stars and local favorites slated to perform at the new De Leon Plaza performance pavilion.
The mainstage lineup includes a mix of Texas country and Tejano artists chosen to reflect Victoria’s unique blend of cultures. The headliner for Friday is Bobby Pulido, a veteran of the Tejano music scene. He will be joined by Las Fenix, an up-and-coming female group; Grupo Vida, who are known for mixing Tejano and country and also go by the name Electric Cowboys; and Fantazzia, a local group with deep ties to our community.
Saturday’s headliner is the Josh Abbott Band; the group’s last performance was at Victoria’s first-ever Bootfest in 2011, and they have been on the rise ever since. Also joining us Saturday will be Chris Cagle, a star of the 90s/2000s who recently returned to touring; Jarrod Birmingham, a legend of the local music scene who performed at Bootfest in 2015; and Past Lives, a funk/rock group that includes two members from Victoria.
Because this festival is a celebration of Victoria, it was important to us to include performers with connections to our community. Discover Victoria, Texas is the City’s liaison for the Music Friendly Community program, which helps us to network with local performers for City events.
In addition to our mainstage lineup, Tejas Fest will include a second stage that will exclusively feature local performers. The lineup for the second stage is still being developed; if you have a group and would like to be considered, please reach out to my office at discovervictoriatexas@victoriatx.gov.
In addition to these free performances, here are a few more activities that residents will be able to enjoy at the festival:
To learn more about Tejas Fest and all of the events planned for Victoria’s bicentennial year, visit www.discovervictoriatexas.com.
Joel Novosad is the director of Discover Victoria, Texas, the Convention & Visitors Bureau for the City of Victoria.