Conjunto Festival Coming to Los Fresnos

by Tony Vindell/LFN

It couldn’t get any better than this for the City of Los Fresnos as the town is to become the new home of Conjunto Festival, a brain child of The Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center.

And after everything is signed, sealed and delivered, the 26th annual Conjunto Festival will be held in October of this year, featuring some of the world’s best accordion players.

A team of representatives with the non-profit organization created to preserve and develop such musical genre met last week with the board of the Community Development Corp. to seek their support and received more than applause for bringing the event to Los Fresnos.

Board members unanimously allocated $5,000 for the project that will put Los Fresnos at the forefront of a music culture born in this part of the country.

After the presentation was made, the word accordion was mentioned repeatedly as the squeeze box instrument is the one of the best representations of a conjunto.

“For us, this is a gift served on a silver platter,” Enrique C. Juarez, the board’s president, said. “And culturally, this is a gold mine.”

He said having the Conjunto Festival here, fits perfectly with their plans to make Los Fresnos a major cultural and tourist destination.

Juarez said he himself is a conjunto fanatic and even owns a German-made accordion he is yet to learn to play.

Rogelio Nuñez, a spokesman with the NMCAC, said they decided to go after another place to relocate the center from its original home base in San Benito for a major reason – economics.

San Benito is now asking close to $18,000 a year to have the center and festival, something which he said is out of their means.

David Garza, commissioner for Cameron County’s Precinct 3, said the two centers and festivals are like no other cultural-oriented activity in the Rio Grande Valley.

“This is one of the few things that brings entire families together, “he said. “This will be a great opportunity for Los Fresnos, the school district and for everybody else.”

Although the CDC board approved the request, the city council is yet to do so but will take action at its meeting this week.