Go Texan

Whew!

It's been a while since we've chatted. Sorry about that.

The festival is going to be awesome. Seriously.

There's a couple of new developments that we're happy to announce.

First of all, the festival has entered into a partnership with the Texas Department of Agriculture's Go Texan program.

Go Texan and the festival share a common mission -- the promote the marketing, success and production of things manufactured, grown or made in the State of Texas.

The festival will feature the Go Texan Pavilion inside the Real Texas Marketplace at the festival -- featuring Go Texan members promoting and selling their products.

It is also the 10th anniversary of the Go Texan program and it seems only fitting that the TDA has selected the Real Texas Festival -- which celebrates all things Texan all of the time -- to help commemorate the anniversary of the program.

In addition, we received confirmation this week that the U.S. Army will be bringing the Silver Wings demonstration parachute team to the festival.

There will be a few jumps where army skydivers will descend upon the event -- always a nice visual attraction and simply gives the festival another little something that sets it apart from the herd.

Details are still being put together on the schedule for the drops, but we envision one of them occurring right as the festival opens on Friday evening -- perhaps before the first act takes the main stage on Friday night. Army skydivers can drop into the center of the venue and plant a big Texas flag in the field to officially kick off the 2009 Real Texas Festival.

It should be really, really cool.

Also, the U.S. Army will sponsor the 2009 Battle of the Bands event, where 8 high school "garage" bands will crank it up in hopes of being named the champion.

We still have some spots open so please get your entries in. It's $500 to the winner and a chance to meet festival headliners Los Lonely Boys.

Also, the U.S. Army will present the Best Front Man or Front Person award ... which will go to the lead singer of one of the bands. It will be a people's choice award so fans of the bands can plan on voting for their favorite front man at the U.S. Army adventure van location at the festival, or they may be able to vote pre-event by logging onto realtexasfestival.com and clicking on the Battle of the Bands link.

Stay tuned.