West Texas Supported Country And Tejano Concerts More Than Any Other At The Fair Park Coliseum For Literally Decades, But Higgs Indicated A Major Change Being Instituted During Each Year's Concert Week Is Stress On Diversity.

Lubbock's first Panhandle-South Fields Fair took place in 1914. No carnivals were held during World War Ii from 1921 to the present, the fair found the community and region concerned in stock, culinary, sewing and craft competitions.

Crowds of people attend each year solely for these events.

In spite of this, the first question Panhandle-South Fields Fair director Herb Higgs hears from family and friends annually is, "What concerts will you have this year?"

Doubtless, Lubbock's fair directors have been informed that same question annually since Elvis Presley arrived in 1956.

West Texas supported country and Tejano concerts more than any other at the Fair Park Coliseum for literally decades. But Higgs indicated a major change being instituted during each year's concert week is the focus on diversity.

The support shown for concerts by Boys II Men in 2009 and En Style last year are but 2 reasons, he said, though Higgs noted that he personally was blown away by the enormous crowd and vocal support particularly for Boys II Men.

Variety wouldn't be possible, he observed, without a broader range of music already offered on varied local rock radio stations.

Additionally, Higgs recounted, "When booking entertainment, you want to appeal to a wide slice of the community. That is done by making different musical offerings. Different days, different crowds.

"You require the crowd to 'turn over' and not just be more of the same, It is essential that we try and offer a little something for everyone."

Concerts at the 2011 Panhandle-South Plains Fair, which runs from Sept. Twenty-three to Oct. 1, will incorporate :

Kevin Fowler, country, Sept. 23.

The Amarillo native currently tops the Texas music chart. He has five studio albums and three singles on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.

Grand Funk Railroad, classic rock, Sept. Twenty-four.

The Michigan-based rock and roll band filled arenas in the 1970s, after being formed by Mark Farner and Don Brewer, The band clicked with "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home) ." Brewer still plays with the band.

Easton Corbon, country, Sept. Twenty-six.

A Florida native with an agribusiness degree from the College of Florida. He signed to Mercury Nashville Records in 2009 and released his first album in 2010. He's had 2 Number One hits : "A Little More Country Than That" and "Roll With It."

Los Palaminos, Jesse Turner and Elida Reyna, Sept. 27, Tejano, Tex-Mex, polkas, cumbias, etc . This could be the first time all three recording acts will perform together. They also will perform individually. Los Palaminos hails from Uvalde. They signed with Sony Discos in 1994 and play polkas, rancheras, boleros, ballads and cumbias. Winners of American Grammy Awards and Latin Grammy Awards. Turner is lead vocalist for the band Siggno. Turner and Reyna both are Latin Grammy and two-time American Grammy winners.

Loverboy, classic rock, Sept. Twenty-eight.

Canadian rock and roll band controlled by vocalist Mike Reno and guitarist Paul Dean, both of whom are still with the band. Hits include "Turn Me Loose" and "Working for the Weekend." Performed at the Vancouver Olympics on Feb. 21, 2010. Inducted into Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Hot Chelle Rae, pop-rock, Sept. 29.

Four-person band formed in Nashville in 2005. In 2007, they opened a sold out show for rapper Lil Jon, then gained exposure with a collection of shows at South by Southwest in Austin. Signed to Jive Records in 2008. First album "Lovesick Electric" was released in 2009. Best known for platinum hit "Tonight Tonight."

K-Ci & JoJo, American rhythm 'n' blues duo, Sept. Thirty.

North Carolina bros Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey and Joel "JoJo" Hailey. The couple is a spinoff, as both bros were members of chart-topping RB group Jodeci. In 2010, K-Ci & JoJo signed exclusive handle RB frontman Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds' new label Soda Pop Records, distributed through Capitol.

Pennsylvania-based rock and roll band released first album in 2009 and has carved name for itself for near-nonstop touring, performing as many as two hundred and fifty shows a year. Sibling band members Arejay Hale (drums) and Lzzy Hale (guitar) were writing and performing in 1997 when they were 10 and thirteen respectively.

The Panhandle-South Plains Fair, incidentally, never left the concert business.

It just appeared that way when, under Higgs' leadership, the fair entered into ticket dispersal and advertising agreements with local radio stations.

This assured that each concert at the Fair Park Coliseum during fair week would be offered free to the overall public. It permitted "sponsoring" or "presenting" radio stations to dictate how all of the tickets would be given away.

The final analysis is the fair still pays all or most of the salaries of bands performing at the Fair Park Coliseum.

Higgs explained the fair's reasoning : "We have eliminated the concert tickets. But people who receive free concert tickets still must pay admission and parking costs when attending the fair.

"We feel that, by giving free concerts, it also gives us an opportunity to show patrons all of the other free shows and activities on the grounds. And if they like the activities at the fair, they may additionally want to eat at one of the booths run by a town nonprofit."

Depending on whether or not they make a monetary commitment, local radio stations who become concert partners with the fair are elected either "sponsors" or "presenters."

Higgs suggested that only 2 radio stations have worked as concert "sponsors" annually the system has been in place : Tejano station KXTQ Radio (Wizardry 93, 93.7 FM), and country station KLLL Radio (K-Triple-L, 96.3 FM).

Each pays some of the salaries of certain bands.

Eddie Moreno, KXTQ-FM programme director, said, "Magic 93.7 has been a real fair show sponsor for about thirteen years. One of the nice things about sponsoring our own show at the fair is it allows us to have absolute control over who the performer will be. Having this control gives us the liberty to feature artists that really represent what our station and Tejano music is all about. This is very important to us."

Jay Richardson, KLLL vice chairman and market executive, indicated that, "Because of the response to, and the turnout at, the KLLL shows annually, Herb allowed us to do the second show this year."

Other radio stations continue to help the fair by offering significant advertising for shows, but provide no cash. Higgs said these are concert "presenters."

All radio stations partnering with the fair use their own advertisers as locations where free tickets can be given away.

Concert sponsors are allowed to give away all of the tickets for their shows. Concert presenters are given eighty p.c of the tickets to give away. The leftover one thousand tickets are given away through the fair office,writes tagza.com.