RECOMMENDATION #15

Enforce a standard that any City-conducted special event with more than three musical performances booked shall include at least one minority-fronted performance group.

Because the City’s largest annual event is Western Days, which focuses heavily on county music, there is a perception that all City events present primarily country performances. Event staff has attempted to remedy this by adding a fourth stage at Western Days that books non-country performances, by increasing the number of Latino bands at the Western Days festival, by adding a Latino-focused event (Fiesta Charra) to the annual schedule, and by having a broad mix of musical genres at all other events during the year.

This effort has been somewhat successful. While 22 percent of all musical and dance groups booked during 2019 were country-themed (28 out of 125), only 10 percent of performances outside of Western Days were country-themed (8 out of 80). The percentage of Latino performers has increased significantly (9.6 percent overall, 12.5 percent outside of Western Days).

Event plans for 2020 included a new standard that any event at which more than three groups were booked would have at least one minority-fronted group. Those annual events include Western Days, Sounds of Lewisville, and Rocktober. Unfortunately, the pandemic response cancelled all of those events in 2020.

This same standard will be in effect permanently moving forward, with two revisions:

1. The same ratio will be applied to the entire slate of bookings for the three listed events, meaning at least 25 percent of all bookings at each event will be minority-fronted groups.
2. This standard will be extended to Presenting Series performances at Lewisville Grand Theater.

Status: Ongoing

Completed Actions

• This standard has successfully been applied to Western Days, ColorPalooza, Sounds of Lewisville summer series, and the Lewisville Grand Presents concert series. This is an ongoing effort.
• Of the 18 bands booked during the 2021 Sounds of Lewisville concert series, 6 were fronted by a Black performer and 3 were fronted by a Latinx performer (total 9 out of 18, or 50%). In addition, 11 of the 18 were fronted by a female performer. Total attendance of 6,938 was the second-highest we have recorded for a summer concert series.

Planned Actions:

• The City will host or otherwise support four public events in June 2022 in observance of Juneteenth. Events include a June 10 concert by Orchestra of New Spain featuring work by Black composers; a June 15 panel discussion at Westside Baptist Church examining the history of the Black community in Denton County; a June 16 presentation at The Grand by the author of Juneteenth 101: Popular Myths and Forgotten Facts followed by a screening of Miss Juneteenth; and a June 17 special Sounds of Lewisville outdoor concert featuring two Black-fronted North Texas bands.