Almost 4,500 attendees from East Texas and beyond flooded the downtown Tyler square on Saturday for the second annual Rose City Music Festival.
Performers included Ludacris, East Texas favorite Whiskey Myers as well as Matt Koziol and DJ Shayne Payne.
“We want to reach out to every possible person that likes live music … ” said Buddy Logan, host of Radio Texas LIVE 101.5 KNUE in Tyler. “We’re trying not to focus on just country or just rock. We really want to get everybody coming out to this and make it an all-inclusive event for East Texas.”
Ludacris, a headliner, dropped hits through the 2000s, with seven top 10 records, five platinum albums and eight platinum singles.
“We’re excited because it’s Ludracris, you know? He’s a movie star and sold over 24 million albums,” Logan said. “He was one of the biggest artists in the world in the 2000s, and we’re really excited to tap into the nostalgia of this fan base.”
Ludacris performs at the second annual Rose City Music Festival in downtown Tyler, Texas, on Oct. 14, 2023.
Numerous restaurants were set up at the event: ETX Brewing Co., Country Meat Market, Clear Springs Tyler, FD’s Grillhouse, Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q, Noodles & Dumplings-Tyler, Prime102, Papacita’s of Tyler, Yamato Tyler, Caribbean Kitchen, Tiba Grill-Tyler,Tx, Villa Montez and much more.
“We really liked the restaurant setup,” said attendee Jennifer Williams. “We get to try a little bit of everything, especially from places around Tyler that we’ve been wanting to try. We haven’t made it all the way around yet, but so far everything has been great.”
“We’ve been really impressed with everything so far,” said attendee Jeremy Parker. “I really like the security … there’s going to be a lot of people drinking, and (event organizers) really made sure they were prepared.”
The event organizers opened up more entrances, including a VIP entrance.
“Our goal with that is to try to get people in faster so they don’t have to wait in line and they come in and have a much better time,” Logan said.
Whiskey Myers performs at the second annual Rose City Music Festival in downtown Tyler, Texas on Oct. 14, 2023.
For attendee Chasity Marie, the experience was better with friends.
“I love it, and I’m excited to be here,” she said. “The weather is beautiful, and we’re just looking forward to seeing Whiskey Myers perform.”
The show is the first time Whiskey Myers has performed in East Texas since 2015.
“Man, I’ve known these guys for 15 years,” Logan said. “We’ve been trying to work out a deal to get them back here for years… they’ve seen so much success the last five, six, seven, eight years, especially with ‘Yellowstone.’ We are just so excited to be able to bring them home for this.”
Whiskey Myers, a Southern rock/country group from East Texas, is made up of members Cody Cannon (lead vocals and acoustic guitar), John Jeffers (lead guitar, slide guitar, lap steel guitar, vocals), Cody Tate (lead and rhythm guitar, vocals), Jeff Hogg (drums), Tony Kent (percussion/drums) and Jamey Gleaves (bass).
The Rose City Music Festival opened with singer-songwriter Matt Koziol, who’s known for songs such as “Here For the Long Haul,” “Work All Day” and “Slow Burn.”
“We wanted to bring some really cool things to Tyler, Texas,” Logan said. “So, you don’t have to go to Shreveport or Dallas or Austin or Houston to have a good time. We wanted to bring great music into our own backyard.”
The inaugural event in 2022 drew 7,000 attendees.
