The dance floor was full and the faces were joyful at yesterday’s Primetime Tejano Music Fest. Today’s local paper reports that temperatures reached 101 and 102 in the shade at around 4 pm yesterday, but whatever heat there was came from the stage and otherwise nobody seemed to feel it. That’s what wonderful music does for the body and the spirit.

We arrived shortly after Los Gallos took the stage and left a little before the headline act, Ruben Ramos and the Texas Revolution, left it. Councilmember Mike Martinez was very much in evidence, along with Chris “Tejano Man” Tristan, Marcelo Tafoya (Tejano radio pioneer, community activist, iTejano radio, Texas Artist Music Museum, and much, much more), and the Austin Tejano Music Coalition. All the musical acts remained after their sets to hear everyone else: Los Gallos, Los Texas Wranglers (with special guest Augustin Ramirez), Gary Hobbs, Los Texmaniacs (with eternal crowd favorite David Farias singing and playing the acordeon as only he can), and Ruben Ramos and his group.

Among the presences were LULAC, voter registration, Fiestas Patrias, Recuerdos 107.7-FM (home of Sunday Tejano music from 6 to 10 pm), the IRS (now seeking to employ people who can proficiently speak, read, and write Spanish), and more.

A large crew from the Cotton Gin in Maxwell, Texas, was there operating one of the more elaborate outdoor cooking, grilling, and smoking outfits in existence. A couple of the guys noted our interest and offered fine free samples of chili and cornbread. The Cotton Gin will conduct a fajita-cooking contest on Labor Day weekend. We were mightily impressed by the aguas frescas from Fonda del Sol on Seventh Street. We didn’t try the coconut, watermelon, or cantaloupe versions, but the lime was intense with citrus and the pineapple was the very essence of perfectly ripe fruit.

I thought it was good market research that people were asked at the gate (it was five dollars, children gratis) where they heard about the event. The answer was usually “radio” but of course, as the day progressed, people were hearing via cellphone from their friends already at Fiesta Gardens. This was billed as “the first annual” program. Many are those who wish for many more.