Rockin' alfresco
Threatening weather doesn't dampen BuckFest

ABOVE: The band Torture Victim performs in Buckfest at the Villa de Cubero rodeo grounds Saturday night, August 9. The two-day music festival featured more than twenty bands. BELOW: Festival organizer and namesake Buck Concho introduces bands for Buckfest at the Villa de Cubero rodeo grounds Saturday night, August 9. This is the eighth straight year that Concho has held the music festival. [photo by Cable Hoover / Independent]

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

VILLA DE CUBERO — One thousand people or more crowded the Cubero Rodeo Grounds over the weekend to hear local and Albuquerque bands give their all under the threatening sky.

Buck Concho, founder and promoter of the annual BuckFest, estimated that at the high point Saturday, the 19-band, multi-genre concert attracted around 1,000 attendees.

“You should have seen it last night; the place was packed,” he said during a lull Sunday afternoon.

Threatening weather Saturday caused a bit of nervousness in the dirt- and puncture vine-covered rodeo arena, but omnipresent evening downpour failed to materialize on the concert.

“It went right around us,” Concho said.

He confided that someone told him that if he put a rosary around a tree, it would keep the rain off and that maybe there is something to it. Concho’s wife and co-producer, Ella, asked quietly if he did put a rosary up; Concho pointed with his chin, perhaps a bit sheepishly, in the direction of tree on the grounds.

In spite of three bands canceling at the last minute, the event kept rolling through the afternoon. Campers lounged around trucks and make-shift camp sites with Mount Taylor providing a backdrop. They shouted dares to the promoters and announcers while they waited for Bluewater metal band Morbid Justice’s tardy bass player. Then the party got rolling again.

The lineup included a number of Albuquerque metal bands, so it was not surprising that after the show closed at 4:30 Sunday morning many concert-goers chose to spend the night sleeping on the grounds, only to be awakened by bright morning sun and a sluggish desire to do it all over again Sunday.

Others, like David and Susan Garcia of Grants, went on home, but came back for the second day.

“We love the music,” Susan said. The Garcias found out about the concert from friends and flyers, BuckFest’s usual low profile method of advertising.

Eleventh-hour donations added to the good vibes, with West Winds Music putting in a drum set and Wal-Mart kicking in a $50 gift certificate for the raffle, the free event’s only income. Grants musician Brian Neher bought two $10 drum raffle tickets, but told promoters that if he won he would give the prize to a kid or someone who really needed it because he already had a set.

Concho said there was no trouble worth mentioning, a few injuries in the mosh pit, but nothing to put anyone out of action. One fight broke out and was quickly quelled by event security, he added. The New Mexico State Police stopped by but did not have any complaints, the promoter said

Will the Conchos do this again? Ella said the couple is looking into becoming a bit more official and getting a non-profit corporation status — no one makes any money on the show. Buck added that he is almost certain he will hold Buck-Tober Fest, a country and soft rock event, in the fall this year.