Things to do: Big As Texas Music and Food Festival

The old adage says everything is bigger in Texas and festival organizers Conroe, Trey Diller, Steve Said and their entire team are supporting that philosophy for the first year of their Big As Texas Music and Food Festival.

Big As Texas will take place at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, just outside of Houston, May 10-12. The weekend will feature countless non-music related activities including a carnival, arts and crafts, custom hat making, tattoo booth, live muralists, 40 musical artists, a Huge range of food and glamping on site with campervans available to hire.

“It’s a festival in the truest sense of the word,” Said says. “There are so many activities and things to do and see that aren’t music. We’re in Texas, so we tried to represent what Texas is.

Said has been a music booker for over 17 years and now books bands for special events and Conroe’s Dosey Doe. He describes the huge bounce house that will be on site, as well as carnival games and a Ferris wheel, for people of all ages to enjoy with infectious joy.

Said had met Diller in Conroe’s thriving music scene, designated a “music-friendly community” by the Texas Music Office since 2018.

While Said had experience booking bands, he referred to Diller as “the festival guy” and the two decided to team up for something bigger than just a concert and aimed to putting on “the largest festival ever in the state of Texas,” Said said.

A big part of their vision was also to raise awareness and funds for suicide prevention.

“What you probably don’t know about Montgomery County is that with all the greatness it has to offer here, Montgomery County unfortunately ranks at the top of the nation in suicide rates per resident,” says Diller, who lost his brother to the war. battle.

Although the Montgomery County community is rich in its connections and programs to help veterans, the high concentration of people in need of mental health assistance contributes to the shocking statistics as well as access at times limited to employment and growth in the region.

Diller, who is originally from there, describes growing up and not really being encouraged to discuss feelings or mental health and sees his festival as a way to open up more discussions about mental health with people in the area .

“If we wanted to make it big, we need a big mission behind it and we felt that was our mission here in this county, to create something that the people of this area look forward to year after year and want to stay .be part of it,” says Diller.

In keeping with this mission, Big As Texas has partnered with more than 40 nonprofit organizations to be on-site providing resources and information to visitors, as well as to the festival by donating a portion of net profits for suicide prevention efforts in their county, a vision not often seen at festivals of this scale.

“I’ve been to big music festivals all over the country and none of them do it as big as we do,” Diller says of their cause. “The facts about Montgomery County are unfortunate, but we really think this could be a must-attend event that people look forward to and want to attend and come participate in,” Diller says.

“And that’s how the idea was stimulated, massaged and transformed into reality,” adds Said. The reality is that Big As Texas is shaping up to be a massive event with a very impressive lineup of artists from the country and Americana music scene to accompany all the on-site activities and attractions.

Diller and Said have worked hard to create a three-day lineup that includes not only heavy hitters and well-known artists from the country music scene, but also a great selection of emerging artists.
The weekend will be headlined Friday by country music headliners Thomas Rhett and Clay Walker, as well as performances by The War Hippies, a group whose personal causes are very much in line with the festival’s mission , alongside Buffalo Nichols and Maddie & Tae and more. kick off the festivities.
On Saturday, big names will perform with performances from music legends Dwight Yoakum and Los Lobos. The day will also see bluegrass darling Billy Strings take the stage and Americana badass Amanda Shires.

Then the weekend wraps up with performances from Dierks Bentley, Texas Midland, 49 Winchester and country star Morgan Wade.

The organizers have worked tirelessly to not only provide food, drinks, accommodation, entertainment and much more for the participants, but they have also set up a sort of bunker for their artists with all the hospitality and the warmth of their small Texas town.

With a lineup of artists all rooted in the concept of the Three Agreements and Truth, the overall message and cause of the festival will certainly resonate from the big stages to the people walking around and exploring the grounds.

Diller, Said and their entire team have put together what is sure to be a memorable weekend for the participants and hopefully an event that can be repeated for years to come as it could help Texas grow as a ‘Musical state.

“You kind of have to dial everything in and bring out every possible feature,” Diller says. “Either we can go big and be just another festival or we can go really big and create this must-see and so we chose the latter of the two”

The Big As Texas Festival will take place May 10-12 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 9333 Airport, tickets $139-249.