Brazos Nights Free Concert Series in Waco, Texas - Doing It Right!

I've been a big fan of Cajun music and Zydeco music since accidentally wandering into a Cajun bar in the small town of Bandera, TX about ten years ago. So when I saw Buckwheat Zydeco is playing in Waco on April 11, I had to check it out. I've been wanting to see him for a very long time.

The event is a series of free concerts (yes FREE) held each year beginning in April and ending in July presented by The City of Waco Parks and Recreation Department. What an awesome thing for a city to do!

But Waco isn't far from DFW, and they've been doing this since 1987. Why haven't I heard about it before? From what I can tell, most of their advertising is local to Waco. And as far as internet advertising, the event does not have its own website, instead it has a dedicated area of the city's website (Brazos Nights Official Home Page).

Despite not having its own site, they do offer plenty of good info - click on Bands and you'll see the headliners for each of the 4 shows this year, complete with links back to the bands' websites. Besides Buckwheat Zydeco, they have great names for the rest of the lineup, including the Toadies on June 13.

I'm seriously impressed with this festival, as they appear to be doing a lot of things the right way. Hats off to the organizers - I'm a bit of a critic when it comes to small town festivals and I can find little to criticize here. You've done so many things right, including a page featuring Photos and Videos from Previous Waco Nights, and moving the April date to accomodate artist schedules.

My biggest nitpick of this event? That they don't give me any tools to help advertise it. If they had some downloadable banners or tile ads, I would likely put them on some of my music-themed websites. I'm sure some of the participating artists would do the same. I even checked the Brazos Nights Facebook Page. I found images for each of the 4 dates, but they didn't include enough info (like WHERE).

But that's ok - I'm going to promote this event anyway, because it's an awesome lineup of artists and bands, and because it's FREE. Way to go, Waco!