Left to right: Frankie J, King Lil G, Baby Bash
Music festivals are back, y'all. And with the return of live events also comes the opening of a new music venue in Fort Worth.
Wild Acre Live — a two-stage, outdoor venue located at 1734 E. El Paso St., Ste. 190, on the property of Wild Acre Brewing Co. — will celebrate its grand opening on July 31 with Centro Popular, a Latin music festival touting a loaded lineup that includes names like King Lil G, Frankie J, Twista, Baby Bash, Krystall Poppin, Renizance, and Louie TheSinger. A total of 14 rap, hip-hop, and R&B artists will perform on the main stage, with an expected turnout of about 2,000 – 3,000 attendees.
The festival is a collaboration between Fortress Presents, which runs the venue and also organizes the city's popular Fortress Festival, and Premier Live, the entertainment company led by Fort Worth-based rap artist Smoothvega.
For Smoothvega, the event feels especially personal — "Centro Popular" is a homage to his mother, who once owned a record shop of the same name in the Stockyards, selling predominantly Spanish music. "I thought it would be really cool to bring that back and pay homage to what she did as a business owner, especially being a Mexican immigrant in the '80s and '90s ... that's why this event's really meaningful to me," Smoothvega says.
But, Smoothvega assures, Centro Popular is a festival for everyone — especially those looking to dive deeper into Latin music.
"I don't want to make it like, we only want Hispanics to come," he says. "If people really want to learn more about our culture, music, artists, and some of our faces, I would highly advise them to come out and attend."
Festival organizers are also exploring the possibility of adding vendors and other elements, Smoothvega says. The Wild Acre brewery and nearby Trinity River Distillery, which produces Silver Star Spirits, will be part of the festival experience as well.
Of course, with the COVID-19 pandemic still a factor, there's still an element of uncertainty when it comes to which precautions will be taken. Fortress co-founder Ramtin Nikzad says organizers remain hopeful that cases will continue trending downward as more people get the vaccine, therefore allowing the festival to adjust restrictions as necessary.
"Of course, we take COVID very seriously. We postponed Fortress Festival for two years and have timed the opening of Wild Acre Live to ensure everyone's safety above all," Nikzad says. "We hope that by July, strict restrictions won't be necessary. It's something that we're keeping close tabs on. As of now, I think we could have it at an open-air space and allow people to move around freely while still taking reasonable measures like encouraging masking."
Centro Popular marks the second event announced for Wild Acre Live. A smaller festival, TRND Fest, will not-so-softly open the venue on June 5. Nikzad says he hopes these events — and future ones — will help fill the void left by Fortress Festival, canceled for the second year in a row due to COVID-19.
But on a grander scale, Smoothvega also hopes Centro Popular will have a significant impact on the local Hispanic community.
"We just don't get these types of events often," he says. "For me, being a Mexican American from Fort Worth, and someone that puts on events, I'm taking this event very seriously ... We want to make sure we approach it the right way."
The full lineup and ticket information are available at centropopular.com.
This article has been updated from a previous version.
