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Carnitas Musica y Mas Fesival

A fun music mix planned for Labor Day weekend

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Looking for a Labor Day celebration and sporting a deep love of community and music, a group of Silver City residents decided they should hold a grand fiesta of all fiestas and created the Carnitas Musica y Mas Festival held at Gough Park.

One of the founders, Jose Ray said the event is going into its third year and people have had positive responses across the board. For three days, Sept. 2-4, the event is going to mix it up with everything from rock and roll, mariachi, country, Tejano and Norteño.

“We have bands from Tucson, Las Cruces, El Paso and Albuquerque,” said Leona Ogas, who with her husband, Leo, are the committee members in charge of rounding up the musicians.

“We figured there was nothing going on for Labor Day so we wanted to do something in this community,” she said. “It has been going really well for us. We figured with the Covid, everybody wanted to go out and enjoy themselves. We wanted to have diversity in the music, a variety for the whole community. That way they can’t say ‘oh we don’t like the music.’”

Thanks to the Ogas’ efforts, 11 bands will be in attendance including the always popular Al Hurricane Jr. Also performing Sunday will be 10-year-old Maria Paula, the young lady from Tucson who sings her favorite Selena songs and much more with her growing remarkable talent.

“She has a golden voice, I know she’s going to hit it big,” she said. “I try to get two of each [kind of music]. My favorite band is we have Al Hurricane. He’s very popular and used to play with his father, a legend continued.”

There will be plenty of dancing and a beer garden, she said. Tickets are $7 a day or $15 for all three days. Children under 12 are free and there will be jumping balloons and other events for the young people. There are also plenty of vendors on site sell food and many other things. The vendors are both local and from El Paso and Albuquerque. 

“We are very, very reasonable in our prices because Joe Ray wants everybody to be able to go and have a good time,” Ogas said.

“it’s nice to sit there and listen to the different types of music,” Joe Ray’s wife, Olga Ray said. “You just sit there, and it just takes you back to the old days whatever it is.”

“We like to give people a different thing, old or young it doesn’t matter,” Joe Ray added.

See page 24 for the schedule of performances.


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