Visitors will pour in for Salsa Festival

            The eighth annual Three Rivers Salsa Festival will be a little early this year, but is shaping up as the “biggest and best ever” according to Murrell Foster, executive director of the Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the festival. The festival will be held on Saturday, March 31, with events beginning as early as 8 a.m.

            Vendors are pouring in; a salsa company in Albuquerque has called and is interested in entering the salsa competition and passing out samples of their green salsa that is sold in H-E-B stores. The salsa competition and the salsa eating contest, which was new last year, are being sponsored by the First National Bank. First prize in the Amateur Division of the contest is $ 1,000 cash.

First event of the day will be the “Hotter than Salsa” bicycle race sponsored by Valero Corner Stores which will leave the parking lot behind the Rialto Theater at 8 a.m. There will be three races – 20, 35 and 50 miles, according to Roger Stewart, director of the race. The race is expected to attract about 150 bicyclists.

Later in the morning there will be a motorcycle poker run expected to have 80 – 100 participants. Rufus Moore is in charge of the event. A horseshoe and washers tournament will again be hosted by Joe Hinojosa with proceeds this year going to the Live Oak County Child Welfare Board.

At 10 a.m. the traditional “Salute to the Troops” will take place with Live Oak County Judge Jim Huff as master of ceremonies. “We not only want to honor Live Oak County men and women on active duty but also our many veterans,” Huff said. Local gospel and patriotic singer Linda Couk will sing the national anthem and a number of their religious and patriotic songs.

The first United Methodist Church Charter Boy Scouts of America Pack 30 will raise the flags of the United States and Texas to inaugurate the event.

At 10:30 a.m. the music and entertainment will start on Stage Two with Chris Rybak´s show. Other stars of that stage will include Billy Mata, Ricky Turpin, Eddie Davis, the Vanguard Barber Shop Quartet and the Bailey Family, according to Jerry Retzloff, stage manager.

At 11 a.m. the popular young gospel rock band Remission will take Stage One followed at noon by Mariachi L, a prizewinning family group composed of seven members of the Luevano family, ages 7 to 17. Grupo Fusion, a new band from Beeville, will perform on Stage One at 1 p.m. followed by Elvis impersonator Henry Vasquez Jr. of Corpus Christi at 2 p.m.

Capping the afternoon´s entertainment will be local boy Ruben Salazar and his band Patron followed by former Kumbia Kings lead vocalist D.J. Kane and his band. Kane was born in Texas but spent much of this youth in New York listening to salsa, rhumba and reggae music. He is a self-taught singer, pianist, guitarist and conguero. He records on the EMI Latin label.

“We have a real variety of music this year, so everyone should go home satisfied that they heard something that they liked”, Foster concluded.

The Three Rivers Salsa Festival is presented by the first State Bank of Three Rivers with the major support from the Valero-Three Rivers Refinery, Super S Foods, First National Bank and H-E-B, and is a project of the Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce Tourism Committee.

Photo: Chris Rybak will return to the stage for this year´s Salsa Festival