The Hearne Chamber of Commerce will NOT be hosting its annual Crossroads Music Festival at the Robertson County Fairgrounds this fall.  Even though bigger name entertainers have been performing & the number of people attending has been growing, the chamber’s board of directors decided that a fall Crossroads Music Festival cannot compete with the Big State Festival being held at the Texas World Speedway outside of College Station on October 13 & 14.  

Presented by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation, the heavily advertised two-day Big State Festival will include five stages & 50+ country western stars.   

Big State Festival entertainers include:  Tim McGraw, Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lyle Lovett & his Large Band, Trace Adkins, Dierks Bentley, Gary Allan, Robert Earl Keen, Jack Ingram, Los Lonely Boys, Drive-By Truckers, The Wreckers, The Flatlanders, Miranda Lambert, Kevin Fowler, Eli Young Band, Chris Cagle, Craig Morgan, Heartland, Reckless Kelly, Eric Church, Leon Russell, Billy Joe Shaver, Charlie Louvin, Willis Alan Ramsey, Kelly Willis, Luke Bryan, The Geezinslaws, Ashley Ray, The Wrights, Matt Caldwell, Whiskey Brown, Mice & Rifles, Monte Warden, Rodney Hayden, Drew Kennedy, Sunny Sweeney, Blue Mother Tupelo, Granger Smith, Jerrod Niemann, Kevin Gordon, Colin Gilmore, The Gougers, Mark McKinney, The Ginn Sisters, The Paul Green School of Rock All Stars, Farmer Jason, Buck Howdy, & The Bummkinn Band. 

Since entertainment contracts normally prohibit performers from appearing at other events within a certain mile radius & within a certain number of days of scheduled events (say within 100 miles of College Station & within 90 days of the Big State Festival dates), the list of country western artists who could have potentially performed at the Crossroads Music Festival was drastically reduced.  Indeed, before its cancellation, several of the above performers were being considered to appear at this year’s Crossroads Music Festival. 

Even if these & other performers could have been booked, the Hearne Chamber of Commerce’s advertising budget simply could not compete with the Big State Festival’s big-bucks, saturation advertising in newspapers, on the radio, on television, on posters, & on billboards. 

From a dollars and cents perspective, the Crossroads Music Festival also could not compete with a situation where event goers could pay $20 to see three performers in Hearne or could pay $100 for a two-day pass to a festival offering access to 50+ country-western performers.   

The Crossroads Music Festival is normally scheduled so as not to conflict with Texas A&M football games, the opening weekend of deer season, Thanksgiving weekend, area music events, and other local activities.  There weren’t enough weekends in the year to accommodate the heavily-booked schedules of potential entertainers & host Hearne’s Crossroads Music Festival later this fall. 

This year’s Crossroads Championship BBQ Cook-Off in Hearne has also been cancelled.   

You guessed it!  The Big State BBQ Showdown is being held in College Station on the same mid-October weekend as the mega-music festival.  Promising “the biggest prize purse in the country,” one Grand Prize Champion “will walk away with bragging rights for a year & a cool $25,000.” 

The Crossroads Championship BBQ Cook-Off had a $6,000 total prize money pay-out.  The first prize purse was $500 for each of three meat categories.  An additional $100 was awarded to the overall grand prize winner.  BBQ teams which might have participated in the Hearne event will likely seek greater riches at the Big State BBQ Showdown. 

While these two Hearne events have been cancelled for this fall, the chamber board is looking at next spring’s calendar to see if possible event dates are available which do not conflict with the Robertson County Fair, Chili Fest, Easter, spring break, finals, graduations, other area events & activities.