Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: News

Media Credit: File - The Battalion [Click to enlarge]

The Big State Music Festival is scheduled to make its debut in College Station this weekend, as the two-day country music event will begin Saturday.

Charlie Jones, a partner at C3 Presents, an Austin-based production company, said Big State Music Festival will showcase more than 50 bands, as well as a barbecue cook-off, stockcar races and entertainment for children. Artists scheduled to perform include Tim McGraw, Lyle Lovett, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dierks Bentley, Gary Allan, The Wreckers, Miranda Lambert and Trace Atkins.

The festival is being presented in association with Texas Parks and Wildlife, as Big State will help highlight the message of land restoration and conservation.

"One of the conditions that alarms us the most [in the state] is the irresponsible development across private land," Jones said. "Texas is 94 percent owned by private landowners, so all of that can be developed for shopping centers, neighborhoods, whatever. We're approaching a crisis, and we're going to use Big State to get that message out."

Jones said C3 Presents, which produces more than 1000 concerts a year throughout America, including Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, had been looking to pull together a country music festival for a few years.

After the idea for Big State Music Festival was conceived over a year ago, Jones said research was done to determine the best location in the country to stage the event.

"When we started thinking about doing it, we thought the best place in America to do a country music festival was Texas," Jones said. "We have all of the big cities - Austin, Dallas, Houston - in a triangle. If you look in the middle of that triangle on a map, you see Bryan/College Station. We also had an exceptional venue that we could acquire - the Texas World Speedway. It has plenty of space, and if we cultivate it, it [Big State] has plenty of chances to grow."

Although Big State is being staged close to Texas A&M, Jones said the event is not trying to only tap into the college demographic.

"The demographic in Bryan/College Station is a lot younger because of the University, but we're really trying to draw all ages," Jones said. "We've got something for everyone."

The festival's producers hope it will become annual, as Big State is based on the philosophy that giving people a good experience for the multi-day, multi-stage event will spread the word, Jones said.

"If our philosophy holds true, then our philosophy will bring those people back in year two and year three. It's all about the value, too. Go see a Tim McGraw concert somewhere, and it costs you at least $50," Jones said. "It's costing you less than $50 a day to see so many other bands."

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