New El Paso Festival Hopes To Put City On Music Map; Partial Lineup Released

Update: Partial lineup announced: Kinky, Los Amigos Invisibles, Girl in a Coma, Designer Drugs, Bulletproof Tiger, GOBI, DA, The Lusitania, Nicosounds, The Royalty, Through the Trees, Subrosa Union.

Previous Story: Each year, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California brings together the world’s biggest music acts and thousands of fans.

This year, the festival sold out in less than a week after its lineup was announced.

But Coachella hasn’t always been thought of as THE music festival to perform at and attend.

Eleven years ago it was still just a dream – the kind of dream some have for El Paso.

“The first year, they thought it was a joke, then the year after that it got better. Then the third year they made it huge! It is the premiere music festival in the United States,” said businessmman Alfrank Catucci, who has been involved with the El Paso music scene for more than 20 years.

A small group of El Pasoans have a vision to put the Sun City on the international music stage with the inaugural Neon Desert Music Festival on April 30.

“If it’s done correctly, if you give El Pasoans a taste of what’s going on, you can really do something great – I mean really great!” Cattuci sad.

Neon Desert will be a 12-hour festival featuring 27 bands performing in the heart of Downtown El Paso. Kinky, Los Amigos Invisibles, Girl In A Coma, and Designer Drugs, DA, Lusitania, The Royalty and Bulletproof Tiger were some of the musicians announced as part of the lineup. More of the lineup was expected to be released at 1 p.m. Thursday.

“We didn’t think about doing a music festival and then pick the city. we wanted to do a music festival in El Paso,” said Zachariah Paul, with Splendid Sun Productions, the promoters putting on the festival.

Paul, Gina Martinez, and Brian Chavez, also with Splendid Sun, now live in Austin, but the Sun City is always close to their hearts.

“Why El Paso? Because it’s our home town,” Paul said. “We were all born and raised in El Paso. our families are still there.”

In January, the City of El Paso granted Splendid Sun Productions $20,000 to help get Neon Desert off the ground.

“It’s a first time event but we are modeling it after successful events,” said Bill Blaziek, head of the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau. “In fact we talked about the humble beginnings of events like south by South By Southwest in Austin, and Austin City Limits for that matter.”

With Downtown El Paso as a backdrop, it might remind music fans of Lollapalooza in Chicago. Neon Desert will start as a one-day bash with four stages and nearly 30 bands. It will stretch from Cleveland Square, near the new History Museum to San Jacinto Plaza.

“In trying to make this first one a success… We want to focus on the music we think is popular in El Paso,” Paul said. “That’s rock, electronic, latin rock, … Indie rock.”

Just days after Coachella, Neon Desert could easily bring in some bands that might be on the road.

“The week before Coachella, the week after Coachella, all the bands are on the move,” Catucci said. “All the bands are going east and west.”

With bands headed here, promoters and the Convention and Visitors Bureau said they hope music lovers from all over will flock here, too.

“At some point in time it has the strengths to attract out of town visitors for extended periods of time,” Blaziek said. “There in lies the tourism value to the city.”

That’s music to the ears of 18-year-old UTEP student Tania Chavez.

She said she’ll finally get her outside music festival fix without traveling to California or Austin and breaking the bank.

“That’s amazing!” Chavez said. “Like ACL in Austin,” I’ve always wanted to go right? Something like that here in El Paso would definitely be fun. My brother has been there (to ACL), he’s invited me before. I’ve always wanted to go.”

Other concert festivals have been successful in El Paso in year’s past, possibly showing a hunger for festival such as Neon Desert. Two years ago, thousands attended a concert festival featuring Conor Oberst and Jim Ward in the parking lot of a motorcycle dealership. Each year, the Van’s Warped Tour stops in Las Cruces and is one of the highest attended concerts on the tour with attendance figures of 8,000-10,000 over the years.

Chavez isn’t just a music fan, she’s also a musician. Who knows, maybe one day she’ll be rocking out on the Neon Desert Stage.

For now, the focus is on making the first Neon Desert a success.

And if done right, it could one day become a signature event, packed with an international crowd.

Related Link:Link:Buy Tickets To The Neon Desert Music Festival; Tickets go on sale at 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17 with the first 1,000 tickets available for $25 through the festival Website. After that, tickets will cost $35. A percentage of all revenues will be donated to Creative Kids and Amor Por Juarez. In addition, $1 from each ticket sold will be allocated to the Parks and Recreation Department of El Paso.Video:Kinky – Hasta QuemarnosVideo:irl in a Coma – Walkin After MidnightVideo:The Royalty – Chinese Fire Drill