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Culture
South of the City Limits Concert Series Capitalizes on McAllen's Proximity To Austin Music Scene
The Cine El Rey is an iconic McAllen landmark that is located on South 17th Street.
With a terrific venue and a lot of regional talent‚ the only question about McAllen’s “South of the City Limits: The Best of the Austin Sound” concert series is “What took so long?”
The series‚ which had its first run from November 2006 to July 2007‚ allows McAllen to showcase its own arts community while drawing in music lovers from around the area‚ says Nancy Millar‚ director of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce’s Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.
“The Chamber of Commerce has for several years been seriously involved in promoting the arts in McAllen‚ and one of the things that we were interested in doing was increasing our offerings‚” Millar says. “Art and culture make a big difference in all aspects of economic development‚ from tourism to encouraging businesses to come to town. Quality of life really can make the difference in where a business will locate or expand.”
Once the idea of a concert series began to gain traction‚ the pieces fell into place quickly.
“We have this wonderful‚ renovated historic theater‚ the Cine El Rey‚ already showing a lot of films‚ and so we came upon the idea of sponsoring a series of live performances‚” Millar says. “We’ve got Austin right up the road‚ so it was logical to pick some of the best acts that were appearing there and bring them down here for performances.”
Entertainers in 2006-07 included Grupo Fantasma‚ The Eggmen‚ WC Clark’s Blues Revue‚ Commander Cody‚ Ian McClagan‚ Rusty Wier‚ The Austin Mother Truckers and the Lounge Lizards.
It helped that the CVB was no stranger to creating high-profile art events. The organization ran a series‚ “Winterstage‚” for about 15 years‚ stopping two years ago. The new program took a lot of ideas from its predecessor‚ but was designed to have a broader appeal.
“One of our goals is to increase the availability of the arts for individuals here‚” Millar says. “The local folks absolutely loved ‘South of the City Limits‚’ and our creative community did as well. They see it as the city putting more of an emphasis on the arts all the way around‚ and what helps one helps them all.”
On the tourism side‚ the series is one more way that McAllen can promote itself as the Valley’s cultural arts and entertainment center‚ she adds.
“This kind of program helps us promote leisure tourism‚ as well as convention sales‚” she says. “Almost every show was sold out last year‚ so there’s plenty of interest here.”
In fact‚ bands already are sending their promotional materials to the Chamber’s office and to the Cine El Rey’s management‚ so word-of-mouth buzz promises to make the second year even more successful than the first. And with season tickets for all eight shows going for a very reasonable $160‚ Millar expects nothing but positive reactions going forward.
“It really is a good bargain‚” she says‚ “and the talent is just incredible.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Antony Boshier
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