“I always use the metaphor of a wave for what this thing is and it is like a big wave where every year is a little different,” says founder Robert Kuhn. La Izquierda will take place May 3-5 at Beach Central located directly across the street from the beach where the surf competition will be taking place.
“This year it's just been so much easier planning. We know what we're doing. We've had all year to work with the venue and we've had all year to book. We are going to do the same thing we did last year just make it better so I feel like we are better prepared this year.”
One major change is that organizers added a small stage to the beach area where the surf competition will be taking place in hopes of not only spreading the event out physically but also allowing accommodations for more bands while encouraging attendees to enjoy the cooler weather by the water while cheering on the surfers.
“It’s just growing and growing,” says Kuhn who started the festival on the 91st fishing pier before expanding to the park. “It was so fun,” says Kuhn of the first year. “Now it'd be really hard to stop because there are so many involved in it and so many people pushing it forward, it’s rolling.”
La Izquierda will kick off the first day with a free evening of performances with a reggae takeover featuring Dancehall Nice with Soulfiya, Kroywen, Tremendos, Mr. Blacc Sheep as well as The Skatastrophics, Son Bayou and DEM Roots. The festival’s Free Entrance Friday is very much in line with organizers' bigger vision where they use proceeds from the festival to fund their summer concert series Free The Locals.
Kuhn spends all year planning the event, searching for local, regional and national bands to perform mentally making a list of who would best fit the bill while studying their tour schedules and his budget. He keeps his finger on the pulse of what’s going on by reading local music coverage, including the Houston Press, going to shows and of course through being an active local musician with his band Galvezton.
Year after year Kuhn has done an amazing job of curating a three day lineup that covers a wide range of genres while maintaining the common thread of bands that have a joyful energy.
“It has to be uplifting, it has to be dancy, it has to be something fun,” says Kuhn of what he’s looking for in a band.
This year is no different as attendees will be treated to performances by over 30 bands including The Nude Party, The Ghost Wolves, Garrett T. Capps, Ruben Moreno, Sherita Perez, Astralace, Gio Chamba, Kam Franklin and Galveston’s own R&B queen who will go from the Broadway Street billboard to the stage, Tanya Nolan.“It has to be uplifting, it has to be dancy, it has to be something fun.”
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Throughout the five years, Kuhn and his team have been amassing the tools and equipment needed to pull off an event of this caliber and plan on doing more and more events like it as they grow not only as an organization but also with their blossoming partnership with the city of Galveston.
“There's some energy in it so something cool is going to happen. There’s going to be some mojo, some magic and every year that's what ends up happening. It’s a special energetic being and everybody’s got really the best intentions. There's some beautiful things that happen every year,” says Kuhn.
When asked to be specific about previous years "magical" experiences Kuhn instantly recalls last year’s festival when Bun B and C.J. Chenier were on the bill. Kuhn describes Bun B. joining the festival as “a huge gift” that will hopefully repeat itself in the future.
With both artists being Texas legends from Port Arthur, they instantly bonded and began comparing notes creating a family type bond between both parties' entourages and fans.
Last year Rap legend Bun B celebrated the power of music with the youth from the Gulf Coast Texas City marching band, Marching Thunder.
Photo by Alissa Szucs
This year sees the festival expanding not only physically but with more vendors and sponsors for the weekend including Hotel Lucine who will host many of the performers and attendees as well as Steve Allen Designs who has created an exclusive VIP experience for those ticket holders.
“It’s always been a pleasure to do because it has been our friends all working on it but now we have even more friends working on it and more people starting to understand what it is and what it could potentially be so we got a lot of visionaries that are working and see that and they are investing their time and energy into it.”
The surf competition portion of the festival remains a hit and brings in Gulf Coast surfers who know the surf style of the region and how to navigate our little, mushy waves. Though Kuhn admits that the festival hasn’t quite brought in out of state surfers, the Texas ones are all in and ready to compete year after year.
Surf and music have long gone together and Kuhn and his team have always seen the La Izquierda as a perfect way to combine the good feelings brought by both kinds of entertainment as well as paying homage to the Gulf Coast surfers of the past.
“A reason why they just fit well, surf and rock and roll, they are both so temporary and they're both just about being in the moment and loving what you’re doing in that moment and the feeling.”
La Izquierda Surf & Music Festival will take place from May 3 -5 at Beach Central in Galveston, 2102 Seawall, $25-140.
