Del Rio Community Comes Together to Celebrate; Eclipse 2024!

Del Rio Community Member attempts to capture the eclipse with his phone.

Downtown, Epicenter, Casa de la Cultura, Whitehead Museum, Val Verde Winery, The Kress, Brown Plaza, Falcon Art Studio, Fairgrounds.. there was so much to do this past weekend in Del Rio. Del Rioans and visitors alike had the opportunity to attend events that were themed for the eclipse. "I'm super excited for the eclipse to come through Del Rio, it's so good for Del Rio." Michael Diaz shared with Connect Del Rio. Diaz is the Director of the Whitehead Memorial Museum, one of Val Verde County's museums that is dedicated to preserving historical and tangible artifacts that reflect the early history, cultures, and economics of Del Rio and the Val Verde County area. The Whitehead Memorial Museum hosts the Cajun Fest every year but this year, it happened to land around the time of the eclipse. "We're here at our 23rd annual Cajun Fest Fundraiser, we are a non-profit; so this is one of our major fundraisers that we have. It's Cajun food, cajun music, and a lot of ice-cold drinks!"

If we take a drive just a few minutes away from the Whitehead Memorial Museum, we'll find the Casa de la Cultura. The casa held two major events over Eclipse weekend, also unrelated to the main eclipse event. Despite that, they had great turnouts and support. Connect Del Rio arrived on the scene and immediately saw many local attendees working on their chalk art at the Casa's Culture Chalk! Participants had the opportunity to draw with chalk all around the Brown Plaza. All of the drawings were absolutely stunning.

Another event the Casa held was their First Friday Night Artwalk a collaboration effort between the Casa de la Cultura, Adrian Falcon Art Gallery, Pams, and Mesquite Creek Outfitters. This weekend they featured artist, Juan Miguel Ramos. Ramos, based out of San Antonio visited the community and had some kind words to say. "I've never been here before and I really like what I am seeing, it's very familiar but it's also a little bit different." He also spoke with us a little bit about his art and the thought process behind it. "I do portraits of people, usually people that I know and what I like to do is represent what I feel is happening around me. So that has a lot to do with identity and I feel like a lot of Mexican-American Culture isn't represented in an accurate way in mainstream media and so my work is sort of holding up a mirror up to what's actually happening around me in the City of San Antonio in South Texas." Adrian Falcon Art Gallery, also a part of the First Friday Night Art Walk held its 26th anniversary of Friday Night Art Walks.

Downtown Del Rio was vibing with another one of "The Pop Up DRTX's" Pop Up Markets! This time themed for the Solar Eclipse. Locals flocked to The Kress to visit our local vendors and the event seemed to turn out to be a major success.

Mesquite Creek Outfitters held an Eclipse Block Party that took the city by storm! Many locals and visitors attended the party in huge numbers. Food Trucks like El Toston and D&A Hibachi Express were set outside of Mesquite and just down the block, Ocho Dos Dos was holding their event in their parking lot. The two events coincided with each other and brought traction to each other.

Bruno Lozano, Former Mayor and Current Event Coordinator for the Del Rio Eclipse Run was happy with the turnout he received. 61 participants in the run and all of them enjoyed it.

While all these events were happening the main eclipse events were also going on. KDLK 94.1 held their Eclipse Fest 2024, a 3-day event that hosted multiple country singers at the Val Verde Fairgrounds. KDLK had no issue pulling in visitors and locals as all 3 days were jam-packed with attendees. Connect Del Rio was able to attend Day 1 and Day 3 where hometown favorite William Beckmann performed on Day 1 and the anticipated John Michael Montgomery on Day 3. Below is a list of the performers that took the stage throughout the weekend.

APRIL 5th:

• Chris Hoff and the Hill Country Half-Timers

• Dustin De La Garza

• William Beckmann

APRIL 6th:

• Erick Y Grupo Massore

• AJ Castillo

• Michael Salgado

APRIL 7th:

• Stoney LaRue

• Eli Young Band

• John Michael Montgomery

Also happening throughout the weekend was the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce's Texas Solar Eclipse Fest 2024! Held in two locations the Epicenter (Del Rio Civic Center) and downtown Del Rio we're events filled with vendors and food trucks! While the first 2 days were not as packed as the other events, Day 3 and Day 4 were filled with loads of visitors.

All of these events leading up to the big Eclipse Day! The Epicenter was packed with people from all around the world as we all got to witness the beauty of the comic event, the Solar Eclipse. 3 minutes and 27 seconds of pure awe from the crowd. Many cheers of joy as people waited for some clarity from the clouds that partially blocked the view. Every time the clouds allowed us to see the spectacle screams of joy from everyone. Del Rio.. completely covered in darkness.

As the sun came back out everyone clapped and cheered as the next time this phenomenon will happen in the United States will be August 23, 2044.

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