18 OctOber 19 - 25, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Kandi Hessel has been instrumental in bringing live music to Van Alstyne. The re- cently completed Central Social District is part of the city’s plan to keep and enhance a sense of community as the city grows, and live music was identified as one of the best tools to accomplish that goal. “Our community, specifically, is growing constantly,” Hessel says. “We wanted to create a central location for people just to get to know [their] neighbor[s] and local businesses.” The new Social District has a street ad- dress, but directions start with “downtown by the railroad tracks.” Everybody knows exactly where that is, as Van Alstyne makes a point of celebrating its foundation as a rail- way town and its spot on the old Texas Elec- tric Railway, an interurban line that in the first half of the 20th century linked North Texas towns from Waco to Denison. Central Social District Park, with its main stage for music, opened in April 2022 and held its first concert the next month, with Foreigner tribute band Double Vision. With a new space and generous private sponsorships, Hessel has been able to move beyond tribute acts and attract talent you might not expect to see at a free concert in what is still a relatively small Texas town. The city works with the same promotion company that books shows for the Okla- homa casinos just north across the Red River, and that partnership is used by the city of Sherman as well. The combination gives them insight into both the audience and access to artist scheduling conflicts. Intentionally, Hessel has started out with a lineup based primarily around country music and classic rock. Aside from Foghat, this summer’s lineup included the Jefferson Starship and Prophets and Outlaws, and closed with country singer Deana Carter last weekend at the town’s 150th anniversary celebration. For the city, the events mix music with a chance to socialize with neighbors, and when he’s booking artists Hessel is looking for performers who don’t mind joining in. When Jefferson Starship played at the city in September 2022, Hessel says city police gave them a lift back to their hotel, pleasing the band members who said they’d never had the chance to ride in the front seat of a police car before — though they’d possibly seen the view from the back seats. People bring their coolers and lawn chairs and pets. Even with the relaxed BYOB standards, everything has run smoothly, even on the night they had to move the show to the high school gym. No drinking on school property. The only other complaint of note? They have asked the kid with the 10-foot snake if he could find a different ani- mal friend to bring along next time. The town’s city manager has a back- ground in the music business, and Hessel has worked in radio, she says, so they know the value of bringing music to the community. “What draws crowds is music,” she says. The Central Social District Park is de- signed with water features and plenty of concrete to allow vendors to set up to ex- pand the draw. Perhaps most importantly, the city aims to keep the events free. This budget year, the city raised $110,000 in sponsorship money to cover the free con- certs and hopes to exceed that amount in the coming year. Hessel says the city doesn’t see itself competing with other northern suburbs that are also expanding their live music op- tions. Van Alstyne’s goal is to strengthen its own community by giving residents the op- tion to gather close to home. “We’re not trying to compete,” Hessel says. “It’s more about the experience and keeping that small-town feel.” It’s a formula that is working, with atten- dance ranging from 2,000 to 6,000 for a given event. For perspective, the current population of Van Alstyne is right around 6,000. That’s double the city’s population in the 2010 census, and as the tide of people continues to head north, how long Van Al- styne will remain a small town is anybody’s guess. Of course, there is no giant wall of ice separating Dallas from the northern fron- tiers. It’s too damn hot. But if you did want to create a demarcation between north and south, then Highway 121 might serve as a useful marker. Highway 121 runs from Fort Worth in the west, past DFW International Airport, then continues to the north and east through McKinney. We have no idea where it goes past Fort Worth, but can tell you that north of McKinney it will bring you to the Collin County transfer station. When it snows, the magnificent man-made trash hills look a lit- tle like a giant wall of ice, but the smell gives it away. Hard by the highway and well out of range of the smell of rotting trash lies a string of entertainment complexes. If the narrow brick buildings of Deep Ellum re- flect Dallas’ musical history, then these new structures are a glimpse into our future. If you want to know how the greater Dal- las area swallows up its neighbors, consider this personal anecdote. I arrived in Texas in 1994 and settled in Frisco because it matched my budget. I was surprised to learn that MTV was not allowed on local cable and you couldn’t buy beer at the gas station. A decade or two later, and Frisco is now the home of the Dallas Cowboys and doz- ens of corporate headquarters. With North Plano it is also home to the multi-use planned community of Legacy West, with its upscale shops and $500,000 condos. More to the point, buried between the new Toyota building and the Capital One offices is Legacy Hall, which includes the Lexus Box Garden. In Texas, we’ve never been shy about re- placing the old for big, new, shiny things. It’s not that we don’t like history, we just prefer that it comes with clean bathrooms and plenty of free parking. The Legacy West de- velopment resembles the European city model, with housing, shops and restaurants North of the Wall from p17 Mike Brooks TOMKAT performs at the Lexus Box Garden. Vera “Velma” Hernandez Town centers like Garland Square are heating up as entertainment districts.
