Historic downtown Mercedes held its 18th annual Texas Street Festival on Saturday, and thousands of people were in attendance. Despite the scorching heat, many people came to let loose and enjoy the lively atmosphere where the music and good vibes could be felt from a block away.

“It’s a great event and its the largest Labor Day event in South Texas south of San Antonio,” said Commissioner Joe Martinez. “The real message here is community, we are here and able to engage in conversation with one another with the whole region. There are people here from Mercedes, the Valley, Corpus Christi and San Antonio. It’s a beautiful thing to know people have taken time out of their day to come here to the City of Mercedes and enjoy this event.”

With many types of vendors, visitors enjoyed sweet treats, classic Mexican food, and different kinds of accessories and trinkets for sale.

To ensure that everyone at the event could keep the fun going throughout the day, many volunteers lent their time and effort, assisting the various stalls with anything they might need.

Laura Lopez, Chamber of Commerce board member and owner of LaserLux, was the one who was able to bring together over 50 individual volunteers to help during the event. 

Lopez said that despite a few hiccups in some of the shifts throughout the day, the festival was able to be kept running smoothly thanks to the great effort and hard work done by all of the volunteers.

Shopping wasn’t the only way to have fun, however. An intense wrestling match was put on for a crowd of luchador lovers, giving people of all ages something to get excited about.

Young attendees enjoyed a petting zoo, kiddie rides, and  more.

For the older folks, a car show was held for all the local auto enthusiasts, letting people hear the roar of the powerful engines.

Going around the festival, many different voices could be heard expressing their deep satisfaction with the event:

“My kids have been having a real fun time with the dinosaurs over there…yeah they can’t get enough.”

“I can’t wait for the headliner [band], that should be really fun with, like, all the lights and everything.”

“Yeah, there’s a couple stalls here that are selling some really good food for cheap, it’s great.”

All of these activities and stalls were helped by various volunteer members of the community, ensuring that everything was running as smoothly as possible. Volunteers helped bring ice to vendors, facilitated the activities, and even helped clean up the venue to keep the area as clean as possible.

With the headliner band, Los Traileros Del Norte, closing out the night well into the midnight hours, thousands of RGV residents were able to end the night with a bang in the Queen City.