Jimmy Dean Festival Is Back & Headlined By Grammy Award Winner, Little Texas

Originally organized by Wayland Baptist University to highlight its Jimmy Dean Museum, the annual event celebrating Plainview’s hometown hero has moved to more of a community-led event, with leadership from the Plainview Lions Club.

“Wayland started the event to focus on Jimmy Dean’s musical legacy and his hometown roots, and that has been great. But it was time for the event to take on more of a community feel, and the Lions Club was willing to make that happen,” explained Mike Melcher, event chair and a retired WBU development officer who has been involved in the festival since its inception. “We think this year’s festival will be an exciting event the entire community will enjoy with a fun band and plenty of room for dancing in a brand new Plainview venue.”

Headlining the 2024 festival is Little Texas, the Grammy Award-nominated quartet that has rocked audiences for more than 30 years. With chart-toppers like “God Blessed Texas” and “What Might Have Been,” the band has been performing around the world since breaking out in the early 1990s, performing music written and arranged by band members. Local musician Steve Burrus will open the musical portion of the evening before Little Texas takes the stage.

The festival is set for Friday, Aug. 16, with doors opening at 6 p.m. and serving for dinner opening at 6:30 p.m. Dinner will feature various food stations to explore. The musical portion of the evening begins at 7:30 p.m., with an ample dance floor for boot-scooting, noted Melcher. A cash bar of beer and wine will also be available, and the event wraps around 10 p.m.

The event will be one of the first for the spacious new “The Venue” at Sunset Point located off I-27′s west frontage road.

Table sponsorships are available for $1,500, which includes eight seats in reserved preferred locations near the dance floor and both program and on-screen promotion at the event. Individual tickets are also available for $125 each. To purchase either option, visit the event website at www.jimmydeanfestival.com.

Chart-topping quartet to headline Jimmy Dean Festival

Perennial chart-toppers Little Texas will headline the fourth annual Jimmy Dean Music Festival in a revised format. With a dinner format in a brand new Plainview venue, the event will feature a spacious dance floor and plenty of boot-scooting-worthy tunes from a band that has held its own for more than three decades.

Thousands of shows and eight albums later (with more than 7 million units sold) and celebrating the 33rd year of its debut appearance on the country music charts, it’s easy to understand why the group earned the moniker “Hardest Working Band in Country Music.” During its heyday, Little Texas racked up 12 Top-20 singles (with seven Top 10s and three consecutive No. 1s in a 12-month period) and received multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM nominations, winning the ACM for Top Vocal Group of 1994. To date, band members have continued to write or co-write, record, and play every note on every single song they’ve released.

Little Texas’ sophomore release, a juggernaut appropriately titled Big Time, produced the three chart toppers, including “What Might Have Been,” “My Love,” and the wildly popular “God Blessed Texas,” [which has just been rerecorded by Jonas Brothers frontman Joe Jonas for the HBO Max series, The Righteous Gemstones] bringing the group further critical acclaim and accolades. Big Time remains the band’s best-selling album, with more than 3 million copies purchased to date.

Area favorites Steve Burrus and friends will get the crowd warmed up as the opening act. Burrus has been involved in the festival planning from the beginning and has performed in every concert. Their energetic country sounds get toes tapping and are always a crowd pleaser.

Tickets for the Jimmy Dean Festival are on sale through Eventbrite or www.jimmydeanfestival.com. Table sponsorships are available for $1,500 and include a table of eight in a prime location and promotion in the event program and on event screens. Individual tickets are $125 each.