The Kyle Fair Tex-Travaganza is a three-day, family friendly fair to kick off the summer. Along with a great country and Tejano music lineup, the Kyle Fair includes carnival rides and games, Ribs, ‘Rita and Fajita Competitions, the Gathering of the Kyles official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS TM attempt, the inaugural Jackalope 5k Fun Run, a drone show and more.
The fair opens May 17 with performances by well-known Texas country artists The Reed Brothers followed by Kody West. The musical lineup for May 18 includes Mariachi Classico, Mike Gonzalez & The Iconiczz, The Art Tigerina Band, Elida Reyna, Siggno and Michael Salgado. On May 19, performances include four-time Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-topper Kevin Fowler, the Spazmatics, Ysenia & Groove Doctors and Broken Arrow.
“The music lineups are going to be fantastic this year,” Director of Communications Rachel Sonnier said. “I think it'll just be really awesome to see the whole community out dancing on the dance floor. It's always really fun to see all the people that just get out there and enjoy themselves.”
In addition to music and dancing, the Kyle Fair is an event that foodies do not want to miss. There will be a people's choice judging for the margarita competition the evening of May 17 as well as judging for the fajitas and ribs competitions on May 18. All people’s choice competitions are while supplies last.
Sonnier said professional chefs and bartenders are welcome to participate, but the competitions are open to everyone in the community.
“If you have an awesome family recipe that you want to show off for your ribs or fajitas ...We're not looking for only chefs, we're looking for people who have the best rack of ribs in town,” Sonnier said.
Last year, the city attempted to break the world record for the largest gathering of people with the same first name, inviting everyone named Kyle to participate.
The city of Kyle is once again calling all Kyles to come together and break the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS TM for the largest same-name, first name only gathering at the Kyle Fair Tex-Travaganza on May 18. The official count will take place at 1 p.m. This year, the city encourages all Kyles to pre-register for the Gathering of the Kyles. Pre-registration can be completed at KyleFair.com.
Sonnier said 1,490 Kyles attended last year’s fair, with some traveling from as far away as Australia.
“It was just really awesome to see the amount of enthusiasm and all of the Kyle's there,” Sonnier said. “We were kind of awestruck by how many people actually showed up for the record attempt. The youngest Kyle last year was six months old and then we also had someone that was 97 years old so it was really cool to kind of see all these people gathering from all over the place from every age bracket just for this one world record attempt.”
City staff began planning the event to bring the community together and celebrate all the aspects that make Kyle a unique city, including its history.
“As somebody who grew up in the south, southern sayings have always really resonated with me ... so that was kind of the basis for a lot of the design decisions that we made,” said Xander Baker, senior graphic designer for the city of Kyle. “We were basically a ranching town. We came up from the railroad moving cattle to and from wherever they were going. So it's something that's really ingrained in Kyle's roots as well.”
Entry to the Kyle Fair Tex-Travaganza is free, including attendance to live music performances. Carnival rides, games and vendors will charge independently.
“We really want to see the community come out and enjoy it, and we're really hoping we break that record this year,” Sonnier said.
For more information on the Kyle Fair Tex-Travaganza, visit KyleFair.com.
The above story was produced by Multi-platform Journalist Mary Katherine Shapiro with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.
