VIP SPONSORSHIP PACKET - Bob Wills · and fiddler Shawn Howe. The contingent from south of the Red River boasts guitarist Rick McRae, a veteran of George Strait's Ace in the Hole

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VIP SPONSORSHIP PACKET

6TH ANNUAL FIDDLE FESTIVAL & CONTEST www.bobwillsfiddlefest.com

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Hello,

Aw Haww! This November, the Bob Wills Fiddle Festival and Contest will celebrate

its 6th year in Downtown Greenville and, with your support, 2019 promises to be the

best year yet. We hope you will join us with your sponsorship and, to both old and

new friends, welcome!

This important event, unique to the City of Greenville, pays tribute to American tra-ditions and treasures. It’s about fiddling and fiddlers and the best of competitions, and it’s also about the life and music of Bob Wills, which means fun for the whole family. This year’s line-up of artists will feature Co-Headliners Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys un-der the direction of Jason Roberts and the Riders in the Sky band also special guest of the Texas Playboys, Nashville recording artist Teea Goans at the Historic Green-ville Municipal Auditorium on Saturday night November 2nd. You can enjoy the Play-boys on Friday night as well at the ticketed “Big Ball in G-town’ dinner and dance at the Landon Winery Emerald Ballroom. Contact the Greenville Chamber of Com-merce for tickets. Enjoy a great Western Swing line up on the free outdoor stage on Lee Street all day Saturday featuring Jody Nix and His Texas Cowboys, Billy Mata & the Texas Tradition, and duo band Kristyn Harris & Hailey Sandoz. Also, outdoor festivities will occur all day Saturday with vendors, a custom car show, bounce hous-es and other attractions. It’s true that Bob Wills thought of his Texas Playboys, audiences, fans, and each and every sponsor as ‘family,’ and, in that spirit, the City of Greenville, Sherry and Joey McKenzie, the Estate of Bob Wills and the Bob Wills Heritage Foundation look for-ward to welcoming you as a returning sponsor in 2019 or, if this is your first year, we say ‘Welcome to the Family.’ From ‘deep within our hearts,’ we thank you,

Carolyn Wills Board Member, Bob Wills Heritage Foundation

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Sponsorship Opportunities

The Bob Wills Fiddle Festival and Contest offers sponsorship levels to suit the needs and budget of any

organization. Whether you are a small independent business, a multi-national corporation, or an

individual, the Bob Wills Fiddle Festival and Contest has a package to suit your needs.

HIGH VISIBILITY

$10,000

Company Logo Integrated into Event Logo

Promoted on Interstate 30 Billboard promoting BWFFC

Promoted in Title on home page of BWFFC Website, Program, and Event

Guides

Promoted in Title on all event advertising

Logo inclusion on title of sponsorship presentation displayed Friday &

Saturday

Signage and Recognition at Contest Venues and Outdoor Stage

Sponsorship Announcements throughout Festival Events and Venues

(2) Tables of Eight at the VIP Dinner Show, Friday evening, “Big Ball in G-Town”

at the Bob Wills Ballroom (Emerald Ballroom) featuring Bob Wills’ Texas Play-

boys …..Dancing, Live Music, Dinner, and Bob Wills History

(12) Tickets to Saturday Night Concert at the GMA featuring Co-Headliners

Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys with Teea Goans and the Riders in the Sky band.

(12) Exclusive Meet and Greet Tickets with Texas Playboys, Teea Goans and

Rider in the Sky

(12) Official Festival T-Shirts

(12) Bob Wills Collector Coffee Mugs

FESTIVAL TITLE SPONSOR

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Riders In The Sky band are truly exceptional.

By definition, empirical data, and critical acclaim, they stand "hats & shoulders" above

the rest of the purveyors of C & W - "Comedy & Western!"

For more than thirty

years Riders In The

Sky have been keep-

ers of the flame

passed on by the

Sons of the Pioneers,

Gene Autry and Roy

Rogers, reviving and

revitalizing the gen-

re. And while re-

maining true to the

integrity of Western music, they have themselves become modern-day icons by branding

the genre with their own legendary wacky humor and way-out Western wit, and all along

encouraging buckaroos and buckarettes to live life "The Cowboy Way!"

Riders In The Sky are exceptional not just in the sense that their music is of superlative

standards (they are the ONLY exclusively Western artist to have won a Grammy, and Rid-

ers have won two), but by the fact that their accomplishments are an exception to the

rule as well.

Yes, it would be "The Easy Way" to call it a career after 30-plus years, but it wouldn't

be..."The Cowboy Way!" And so, the never-ending trail drive continues. The ponies are

rested and watered, and America's Favorite Cowboys are ready to saddle up and ride,

bringing good beef to hungry people wherever they may be. Yes, Riders In The Sky are

truly an exception to the rule.

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When Texas Playboys front man Jason Roberts steps onto a stage with his fiddle and utters

his first “AH-ha” of the evening, western-swing fans know they're seeing and hearing nothing

less than the living embodiment of a tradition that stretches all the way back to 1933. That

was the year the charismatic fiddler Bob Wills and several other musicians in a group called

the Light Crust Doughboys broke away from Fort Worth's Burris Mills and its autocratic busi-

ness manager, W. Lee “Pappy”

O'Daniel, to form their own

band. As Bob Wills and His Texas

Playboys, they became one of

the most popular touring and

recording acts in the nation,

offering audiences the highly

danceable musical mixture that

came to be known as western

swing.

Today, the Bob Wills sound continues, as big and bright and brassy as ever. The newest Texas

Playboys aggregation is led by two-time Grammy winner Roberts, hand-picked by both the

Wills estate and Leon Rausch, whose nearly two decades in the famed western-swing band

Asleep at the Wheel includes an eight-year stint actually playing Bob Wills in the Wheel's na-

tionally touring musical-theatre production, A RIDE WITH BOB. And, like Bob's original band,

this group of Playboys includes some of the best swing musicians both Oklahoma and Texas

have to offer.

The Okies include trombonist Steve Ham, trumpeter Mike Bennett, drummer Tony Ramsey,

and fiddler Shawn Howe. The contingent from south of the Red River boasts guitarist Rick

McRae, a veteran of George Strait's Ace in the Hole Band, along with piano player Wayne

Glasson, steel-guitarist Dave Biller, and bassist Albert Quaid. Many of these top-notch players

from both states have already done stints with the band's earlier incarnations.

Together, Bob Wills' Texas Playboys forge on through the 21st Century, bringing a nostalgic

glow to longtime Wills fans and the joy of discovery to those who might not have even been

born when Bob died. Once again, the baton has been passed, and the hands that grasped it

are crafting some of the finest examples of Bob Wills-style western swing anyone could ever

want to hear.

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Every so often there comes along a young artist who fully un-

derstands a genre’s musical lineage and brings it full circle for

those who may only have been exposed to it in a watered

down form. Teea Goans is uniquely positioned to accomplish

that feat for traditional country, revitalizing a style often

thought to be a mere relic of earlier days, and lighting a flame

of enthusiasm in audiences.

From her first to her fourth and latest album, Swing, Shuffle &

Sway, she draws from a neglected well to nourish her love for

what some folks call traditional or authentic country. There’s

plenty of variety in that genre--Texas two-step grooves, coun-

trypolitan strings, keening steel guitars, songs of praise, and

songs of betrayal. On this project, you can hear that and much

more.

Let’s face it. That’s real country music. And no one sings it like

Teea Goans. Not anymore.

Teea lists Price and Loretta Lynn among her predominant three

influences, but the first of these three she knew best of all.

“My grandma, Della Lee Faulkner, had no fear,” Teea recalls,

smiling. “She was always in charge on stage. She was so open,

so relaxed. She’d say whatever was on her mind. That’s part of

my bloodline.”

Teea Goans is helping to preserve the Traditional Country

sound that is part of our American heritage. As a regular

cast member on RFD-TV’s “Country’s Family Reunion”, nu-

merous appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and “Larry’s

Country Diner”, and four critically-acclaimed studio albums,

Teea continues to engage audiences around the world with

her authentic love for the roots of Country Music. From

Country shuffles and torch ballads to Western Swing and

Gospel music, Teea’s style highlights her versatility and the

many facets that create Traditional Country Music

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Bob Wills Fiddle Contest Sponsor (1): $5,000

HIGH VISIBILITY

Signage and Recognition at Contest Venues

Logo on official BWFFC event posters

Logo on Program and Event Guides

Logo inclusion on sponsorship presentation displayed Friday & Saturday


(1) Tables of Eight at the VIP Dinner Show, Friday evening, “Big Ball in G-Town” at the Bob Wills Ball-

room (Emerald Ballroom) featuring Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys …..Dancing, Live Music, Dinner, and Bob

Wills History

(8) Tickets to Saturday Night Concert at the GMA featuring Co-Headliners Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys

with Teea Goans and the Riders in the Sky band.

(8) Exclusive Meet and Greet Tickets with Texas Playboys, Teea Goans and Rider in the Sky

(8) Official Festival T-shirts


The King of Western Swing Sponsor (1): $3,500

HIGH VISIBILITY

Name/Logo on Stage





(8) Reserve seats at the VIP Dinner Show, Friday evening, “Big Ball in G-Town” at the Bob Wills Ballroom

(Emerald Ballroom) featuring Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys …..Dancing, Live Music, Dinner, and Bob Wills

History

(6) Tickets to Saturday Night Concert at the GMA featuring Co-Headliners Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys

with Teea Goans and the Riders in the Sky band.



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Outdoor Stage Sponsor (4): $2,000

Name/Logo on Stage





(4) Reserve seats at the VIP Dinner Show, Friday evening, “Big Ball in G-Town”

at the Bob Wills Ballroom (Emerald Ballroom) featuring Bob Wills’ Texas Play-

boys …..Dancing, Live Music, Dinner, and Bob Wills History

(4) Tickets to Saturday Night Concert at the GMA featuring Co-Headliners Bob

Wills’ Texas Playboys with Teea Goans and the Riders in the Sky band.



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Jody Nix, a well established artist in the great State of Texas gives Glory and

Thanks to God for the talent, and the ability to use it to play music that he dearly loves. A true Traditional Country Music and

Western Swing artist, he has been in the business 57 years. He has played dances and shows all over Texas and parts of the

southwest. He leads one of the finest dance bands in Texas, they fill the floor on every song.

In 2008 Jody and the Texas Cowboys represented the state of Texas at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC, and

also played at the Kennedy Center For Performing Arts. Jody has also played for the PRCA Convention at the South Point Hotel

and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007,2008, and 2009 prior to the NFR and the Cowboy Ball at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in

Colorado Springs, Co. He is a favorite in Branson, Missouri at Silver Dollar City and has performed there for 8 years and at

Willie's Place in Carl's Corner, Texas and played Willie Nelson’s 4th of July picnic in 2010, and 2013, and the Lincoln Co. Cowboy

Symposium 2010-2016, and the Lincoln Co. Cowboy Christmas Ball In Ruidoso, New Mexico. If you listen to XM radio you will

hear Jody and the Texas Cowboys on Willie's Roadhouse channel 59 where they are in heavy rotation. This has brought atten-

tion worldwide for the band.

In 1996 Jody was inducted into the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame in Sacramento, California. In May of 2009, Jody and the

Texas Cowboys were inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall Of Fame in San Marcos, Texas. In 2013 Jody was inducted

into the Northwest Western Swing Music Society Hall Of Fame in Washington State. In May of 2016 Jody was honored by the

Cowtown Society Of Western Music and received the Living Hero Of Western Swing Award, and in June 2016 Jody was inducted

into the Cowboy Hall Of Fame at the Heritage Museum in Big Spring, Texas. Jody has worked with Bob Wills, Ray Price, Marty

Robbins, George Strait, Moe Bandy, Red Steagall, Asleep At The Wheel, Johnny Bush, Frenchie Burke, Tony Booth, The Quebe

Sisters, Steve Wariner, and many many others. The band works 100-115 dates a year, and consists of Jody Nix- Bandleader,

fiddle and vocals, Robert Weeks- fiddle and vocals- Brandy Weeks – upright bass – Jim Loessberg – steel guitar – Terry Thomp-

son – drums.

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For over 35 years, Billy Mata has been performing. His band, The Texas Tradition, professional Texas musi-

cians, joined to play with the best of the best. Three are past their 20th year and one in his 25th year with

the band. They play like family - all energy, heart, spirit, natural and fun, the way it should be. Billy Mata, the

Ambassador of Western Swing is a reference to the genre. When Western Swing struggled, Billy kept the

rich roots of this Texas music alive with one hell of a lot of persistence, perseverance, and commitment to

carry on this tradition in its true form inspired by the masters of the style. He’s done so by honoring historic

icons who mentored many who followed.

Texas-bred musical powerhouse, KRISTYN HARRIS, is

noted for her shimmering vocals, solid swing rhythm

guitar style, unique songwriting, award winning yodel,

and captivating stage presence. At 24 years, she is the

youngest person in history to be awarded the Interna-

tional Western Music Association Entertainer of the

Year, which she has received 3 years in a row (2016,

2017, 2018). She is also a 3-time recipient of the

IWMA Female Performer of the Year (2014, 2015,

2018), and was named the Ameripolitan Music

Awards Western Swing Female Artist of the Year

(2017) and the Pro Cowboy Country Artist Associa-

tion’s 2017 Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocal-

ist of the Year.

Hailey Sandoz is a Texas-bred musician, following a less-trodden path among millennials. Her music is rooted in

western swing, bluegrass, jazz, and Celtic music. This remarkable young performer captures the attention of audiences

young and old through her dynamic performance and representation of “the official music of Texas.” Known for her

exciting fiddling, charming personality, jazzy vocals, creative composing and arranging skills - there’s not much this 18

year old can’t do.

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Festival Entertainment Sponsor (8): $1,250

Logo inclusion in BWFFC event guides.


(2) Reserved Seats at Friday Night Big Ball in G-Town VIP Dinner/Dance in the

Bob Wills Ballroom (Emerald) with the Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys

(2) Reserved seating tickets to Saturday Night Co-Headliner Concert Featuring

Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys with Teea Goans and the Riders in the Sky band

(2) Official Festival t-shirts

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Bob Wills Fiddle Contest Shirt Sponsor (2): $1,500

Logo prominently printed on sleeve of event shirts.

Logo inclusion in BWFFC event guides and event signage.

Logo inclusions on sponsorship presentation displayed Friday & Saturday

(4) Reserved Seats to Friday Night Big Ball in G-Town VIP Dinner/Dance in the Bob Wills Ballroom

(Emerald)

(2) Reserved seating tickets to Saturday Night Concert at the GMA

Bob Wills Fiddle Contest Division Sponsor (8): $1,000

Division sponsors may participate in the award ceremony of the division sponsored.


Logo inclusions on sponsorship presentation displayed Friday & Saturday

(4) Reserved Seats at Friday night Big Ball in G-Town dinner and dance at the Bob Wills Ballroom

(Emerald Ballroom) with Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys

(2) Reserved seating tickets to Saturday Night Concert at the GMA & (4) Official Festival t-shirts

Bob Wills Fiddle Contest Hospitality Sponsor (6): $750

Logo prominently displayed on table with snacks and beverages for contestants, judges, and volun-

teers.


Logo inclusions on sponsorship presentation displayed Friday & Saturday.

(2) Reserved Seats at Friday night Big Ball in G-Town dinner and dance at the Bob Wills Ballroom

(Emerald) & (2) Official Festtival t-shirts

SOLD

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Fans of Bob Wills (Unlimited): $300

Logo/Name inclusion in BWFFC event guides and sponsorship presentation displayed

Friday & Saturday

Logo/Name on the sponsorship page of the BWFFC website

(2) Reserved Seats at Friday night Big Ball in G-Town dinner and dance at the Bob Wills

Ballroom (Emerald Ballroom)


Willie Nelson

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6th Annual Bob Wills Fiddle Festival and Contest Sponsorship Form

November 1 & 2, 2019 in Historic Downtown Greenville, Texas

FESTIVAL TITLE PRESENTING SPONSOR (1): $10,000

BOB WILLS FIDDLE CONTEST SPONSOR (1): $5,000

THE KING OF WESTERN SWING SPONSOR (1): $3,500

OUTDOOR STAGE SPONSOR (4): $2,000 each

BOB WILLS FIDDLE CONTEST T-SHIRT SPONSOR: (2) $1,500

FESTIVAL ENTERTAINMENT SPONSOR (8): $1,250 each

BOB WILLS FIDDLE CONTEST DIVISION SPONSOR (8): $1,000 each

BOB WILLS FIDDLE CONTEST HOSPITALITY SPONSOR (6): $750 each

FANS OF BOB WILLS (UNLIMITED): $300

Company/Individual Name:______________________________ Contact:___________________________

Address:________________________________________________________________________________

City:_________________________ State:_________________________ Zip:_________________________

Phone:(_____)_____-__________ Website:____________________________________________________

Email:__________________________________________________________________________________

Please mail sponsor form and payment to:

Greenville Board of Development

ATTN: Bob Wills Fiddle Festival

P.O. Box 825

Greenville, TX 75403

Payment must be in form of Check

Questions: GBOD Office 903-455-1197

SOLD

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BOB WILLS

Bob Wills (1905-1975) was a uniquely talented individual whose influence in America from

1929 through the 1960’s ignited fans across generations and, to this day, inspires audiences,

musicians, educators and historians around the world.

Born March 6, 1905 in Kosse TX, James Robert (Bob) Wills was the oldest of nine surviving

children in a family of sharecroppers and champion fiddlers. He grew to become the

charismatic and prolific minstrel of an American art form known as Western swing, which is

now the official music of Texas. Across four decades, he labeled an immense repertoire and

led a trail of gifted and dedicated band-members known as the ‘Texas Playboys.’

Wills formed his Texas Playboys in Waco, TX and moved the band to Tulsa, OK in the

mid-1930s where his noontime broadcast from Cain’s Ballroom over powerhouse radio

station KVOO became a veritable institution. In his colorful career, Wills owned ranches, built

dancehalls, created rodeos, rode in parades, and appeared in Western movies.

Remembered as the “King of Western Swing,” Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall

of Fame in 1968, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and received a GRAMMY Lifetime

Achievement Award in 2007 for his significant contributions to American music from the

1930s through the 1960s.

As Dr. David Stricklin (son of Texas Playboy piano pounder, Al Stricklin,) says, “Bob Wills knew

that music defines a great deal of the human experience, that it provides the soundtrack by

which people celebrate milestones, welcome new experiences, relive old ones, and date

their memories. He also knew, because he lived long enough to learn from vast numbers of

people, that his music would live on, in the songs of people he influenced, in the stories

people continue to share about what it was like to be around him, and in the lives of young

people who are determined to take up an instrument and catch some of the magic of the

music of Bob Wills. It’s a great story, started by a great artist who was never different simply

for the sake of being different, but whose willingness to try new things, to embrace creative

freedom, and to demand that everybody who ever played for him give everything they had

in every performance set him apart from every other musician and bandleader of his age.”

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HERITAGE FOUNDATION

THEATER

Documents

VIP SPONSORSHIP PACKET - Bob Wills · and fiddler Shawn Howe. The contingent from south of the Red River boasts guitarist Rick McRae, a veteran of George Strait's Ace in the Hole