Amigoland Fiesta Internacional returns to Brownsville

More than a dozen performers will take the stage at the Second Annual Amigoland Fiesta Internacional, a free three-day festival that will compliment this year’s Charro Days events.

Festival organizer Hector Liedo Sr. brought last year’s festival to Brownsville to recapture the egalitarian origins of Charro Days.

This year’s festival will include a wrestling competition, two fireworks displays, and performances from musical acts like Elida Reyna, Bobby Pulido, Michael Salgado, and Hoof Harted.

Salgado and Reyna are both excited to come back to the area they’re originally from after achieving international success.

“The crowd is always really great out there, very hyped up,” Salgado said.

Salgado is originally from Brownsville and has been singing since he was in grade school. In 2007 he won a Latin Grammy for his Norteño album, “En Vivo.” He says that Charro Days resonates with his music and his binational identity.

“Being from Chihuahua and raised here as well, Charro Days is bringing two types of borders together, so that’s a great thing.”

Elida Reyna, the lead singer of a seven-member Tejano band that bears her name, has traveled the world performing for the last 17 years. She says some of the best crowds can be found back where she got started — in the Valley.

At the beginning of her career, Reyna says that she was often told she wouldn’t go far.

“At first a lot people said we weren’t going to last because I was female,” Reyna said. “I guess I’ve proven them wrong.”

Amigoland Fiesta Internacional begins on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 325 Mexico Blvd. at 6:55 p.m. and continues each evening through March 1.