Local talent highlights musical entertainment at HOT Fair

Parents, grandparents, family, friends, fans — those connections help explain the local bands and organizations booked each year to perform at the Heart O’ Texas Fair and Rodeo.

This year’s lineup features 25 local and area bands scheduled to play on the fair’s Hometown Stage — formerly the Miller Lite Stage — while 42 acts are scheduled for the HOT Spot Stage.

The Heartland’s Got Talent Showcase, a general talent competition, makes its debut this year with 37 acts surviving the initial rounds of screening for two nights of final weeding out Monday and Tuesday. At stake: $5,000 in prize money, including a $2,500 first prize.

Suzi Gummelt has booked the fair’s local performers for the last eight years and keeps an eye to a performer’s following and family connections. “Some of these dance groups have 100 kids and that means 100 parents,” she said.

Her HOT Spot Stage schedule features drill teams, gymnastic teams, martial arts groups, cloggers and folklorico dancers. On the Hometown Stage, a country-heavy lineup offers a sampling of established bands.

Among the ones demonstrating an ability to pull fans to the fair: Flat Rock Junction, the Jonquil Street Band, the Classie Ballou Family Band, McLennan Community College commercial music department’s student bands, Kaley Caperton and Rob Dubois, Gummelt said.

“I like more country acts and oldies or blues acts, but I have to put some rock here and there. I don’t like it, but I do,” she said.

Most years, Gummelt has a waiting list of bands that want to play the fair, but can’t fit the schedule. This year, however, sickness and a disinclination to play outdoors in bad weather has kept numbers down, she said.

Heartland’s Got Talent Showcase

Holly Tucker performs at the Heartland's Got Talent Showcase on Monday.

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