"This was a painful and gut-wrenching decision," says Elias, who runs Elias Entertainment with his brother, Francisco. "This was like our child."
Launched in 1992, the christmas flowers mexico Mariachi Festival has become a Valley tradition, attracting grandparents to children. The concerts blend spectacle with sentiment and feature some of the world's top mariachi musicians, along with headliner vocalists and folkloric dancers. Held at US Airways Center, the show has brought more than 150,000 people to the venue to witness its mix of music and colorful pageantry.
"It became a tradition for a lot of people, and it's very sad to think a tradition like that will be leaving," says Margie Emmermann, the governor's policy adviser for Mexico and Latin America and executive director of the Arizona-Mexico Commission.
It was a tradition not only for the public, but for musicians.
"It was one of the things we looked forward to every year," says Jose Hernandez, leader of Mariachi Sol de Mexico, a Los Angeles troupe that appeared annually at the festival. "It was a beautiful event and always so moving. Juan is one of those people who is in it for the music, not the money."
Elias says money isn't the reason the festival faces its last curtain call. The event was never in the red, he says, although he acknowledges that attendance has dipped. At its peak in the mid to late '90s, about 13,000 people would attend each year; in 2010, he estimates about 7,000 people came through the doors.
"Did we see a difference in attendance from the '90s, when everybody had extra money, to the last couple of years?" Elias asks. "Sure. I'm not going to lie. But financial aspects are not the reason why we're stopping.
"This was more a personal realization that we wanted to do something different, and in order to evolve in business, we wanted to make some changes."
In addition to the national economic downturn, Elias says the state's political climate has hurt a lot of Hispanic businesses and that attendance is down at most Hispanic concerts in the Valley. Case in point: When Mexican superstar Joan Sebastian played here this year, he was booked at the 2,700-seat Celebrity Theatre and failed to sell out. But five years ago, Elias presented Sebastian at US Airways Center, and he attracted more than 14,000 people.
"You have to understand how many people have left Maricopa County in the past two years," he says. "I'm not political, but it is what it is. The whole climate has changed. And the economy has changed for everybody."
And, he says, the festival's end is part of a natural progression.
"It's a life cycle," he says. "Everything has a beginning and an end. This has been an amazing, rewarding experience, but now it is time to move on, to evolve, to take on other challenges."
Branching out
Lorenzo Lucas worked with the Elias clan in research and development for more than 10 years. He knows the family must be aching from the decision.
"This is their culture -- it's in their blood," says Lucas, who now works for Alliance Beverage. "These are passions they inherited from their dad: mariachi and celebrating life in the traditional way you do in Mexico. This event is close to their hearts."
Elias says if you look at the company's annual Phoenix Tequila Fest, also happening this week, you'll get an idea where Elias Entertainment is headed.
"About 80 percent of the folks that attend that event are not Hispanic, but they immerse themselves in the culture and the food for a few hours," he says. "We're always going to be a company that has Hispanic roots, and that's always going to be a resource for us. That's who we are. But maybe we'll be looking at events that are inclusive to the entire community and not necessarily mainly for Hispanics."
In the beginning
The christmas flowers mexico blogsMariachi Festival was an event that attracted fans across the board, especially with such crossover-minded headliners as Vikki Carr, Jose Feliciano and Linda Ronstadt. But when the festival started, it wasn't an easy sell.
The Tucson International Mariachi Conference had long been established event, but in the Valley, mariachi was another story. The traditional music didn't get much radio play, and outside Mexican restaurants, it didn't get exposure. Because the Elias brothers already produced a successful mariachi festival in Las Vegas, they started thinking about Phoenix.
"The Tucson conference was so successful and it was always sold out way in advance," Elias recalls. "We thought, 'Why don't we do something that's different?' So we thought about doing it during the holidays and serenading Our Lady of Guadalupe and doing the re-enactment of Las Posadas. This was something no one was doing."
The festival came solely from the mind of the family. It wasn't a nationwide package tour; instead, they selected the artists themselves. It wasn't cheap, with some acts flying in from Mexico for the event and then returning home that night. Elias even wrote the script.
"This wasn't something that people taught us how to do," he says. "We learned this as we went along."
So did the public. Elias recalls that there was some confusion the first year, because virtually all large Hispanic-themed concerts at the time were held at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
"We sent four members of our staff to the Coliseum to redirect folks to the arena," Elias recalls, laughing. "They were going there out of habit. Hispanics in the Valley weren't used to going downtown to the arena for concerts until we came along."
Big acts
There were other firsts. At the festival in 1993, Alejandro Fernandez, now a major performer in Latin music, made his first U.S. appearance without his father, iconic singer Vicente Fernandez.
"His father came to us and said, 'I trust you. You'll set him up to succeed,'" Elias recalls. "Those kinds of things meant a lot to us."
Jose Feliciano had never performed with mariachis until appearing at the festival in 1996. He enjoyed it so much that he later went on to record a full-on mariachi disc, "A Mexico ... Con Amor" with Mariachi Sol de Mexico's Hernandez.
"He fell in love with the music," Hernandez says. "You get these people and you're not sure what to expect, but they just love the music."
Lucas recalls the 1994 outing, when Mexican actress and singer Lucha Villa appeared with the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan.
"I'd only seen those guys on my grandparents' album covers, and here I am, watching them onstage," Lucas recalls, choking up at the memory. "And Lucha Villa, not only a singer but a movie star, is singing with them.... It's one of those moments that you know is rare, and it's a big part of my life."
Other acts went in a different direction. In 2001, Hernandez arranged a version of Vikki Carr's 1967 million-seller "It Must Be Him" with mariachi strings and horns, and the song moved from its easy-listening origins to a tequila-and-tears weeper.
"She loves it," Hernandez says. "She still uses the arrangement today."
Carr has headlined the festival four times, the most of any performers. It wasn't a coincidence.
"She was my father's girlfriend, but she didn't know it," Elias says, laughing. "If he had his way, she would have performed every year. We lost him in 2008, but he was always so proud of the festival -- especially when Vikki Carr was there."
Musical traditions
Other heavy-hitter headliners include Pepe Aguilar, Arturo Sandoval, Cristian Castro, Ana Gabriel, Pedro Fernandez and Jose Luis Rodriguez. This year's headliners are repeat players: Antonio Aguilar Jr. performed in 2002 and, in a neat bit of serendipity, Beatriz Adriana appeared at the inaugural festival.
At that first festival, Hernandez arranged a lovely, haunting medley of "White Christmas," "The Christmas Song" and "Silent Night." It became a signature of the Christmas Mariachi Festival, spotlighted every year.
"I think it's going to be a little harder to play it this year," Hernandez says. "I think it's going to be very emotional."
That medley is one of the memories that Emmermann, the governor's policy adviser, will carry. A former exec at Bank of America, she arranged a sponsorship between the bank and the festival, so she always has felt a personal connection with the show.
"When they bring all the mariachis onstage for the finale and play and sing the Christmas music ... it can send chills down your spine," she says.
Lucas thinks the absence of the festival will leave a big hole in the Valley's cultural identity.
"There is an affinity in Arizona for all that is Mexican," he says. "Even in light of the SB1070 stuff, most people still really love this culture."
Elias, who grew up around mariachi music, is preparing for the night to be simultaneously joyful and sad.
"It's going to be a very emotional day for us," he says. "This event has been my dream, and so many people love this event. I don't even have the heart to issue a press release that this is going to be the last one. It's just too hard."
