Fall Fest Time

Fall for these awesome autumn events in San Marcos

The Sacred Springs Powwow honors the area's native population, known as the Coahuiltecans.

Photo courtesy of Visit San Marcos

Once fall hits, there always seems to be a reason to celebrate. Whether it's something spooky for Halloween, a music or arts festival, or a tribute to the area's indigenous people, there's always a reason to be out and about in San Marcos this autumn.

San Marcos Frights and Sounds Frights & Sounds lets you listen to more than 30 Texas-based bands.Photo courtesy of Visit San Marcos

Frights & Sounds
October 4-5
Kick off spooky season with this two-day music festival that showcases more than 30 Texas-based bands of various genres, held at different venues around downtown San Marcos. Local vendors are also invited to showcase their unique crafts and tasty treats, while attendees are encouraged to come dressed in Halloween costumes.

Sacred Springs Powwow
October 5-6
This annual two-day celebration spotlights the culture, art, traditions, and languages of the native population known as the Coahuiltecans, who have been part of the San Marcos area for thousands of years. More than 100 native dancers from across Texas gather at the Meadows Center dressed in beautiful, hand-crafted regalia and compete all day to the beat of traditional drums and songs. You can also shop indigenous arts, crafts, and authentic Native American food and drink at the Grand Market.

Lost River Film Fest
October 17-20
Cinephiles won't want to miss this four-day offering of new, independent films — culled from across the planet — with screenings and adjacent events throughout downtown San Marcos. In celebration of the sesquicentennial anniversary of its theatrical release, opening night will feature a special viewing of Boyhood, the legendary film on adolescence that was unconventionally shot over the course of 12 years in part in downtown San Marcos.

Eddie Durham Jazz Fest
October 19
This fest celebrates local legend and jazz icon Eddie Durham in his namesake park. From 11 am-6 pm, enjoy live jazz performances from Morris Nelms and the Calaboose Players, Indigo Soul featuring Sonia Love, The Blues Revue, Blue Mist, The Jamie Kreuger Group, and the Texas State University Jazz Ensemble.

San Marcos Art Squared Art Market Art Squared Art Market is happening every second Saturday through December.Photo courtesy of Visit San Marcos

Art Squared Art Market
Second Saturdays now through December
This juried arts and fine crafts market brings the best local artists together in one place. You'll find great art, live music, a free kids' arts and crafts booth, live art demonstrations, and more.

See all the upcoming markets and events happening in San Marcos here.

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HISTORY CORRECTED

Houston documentary maker helps correct biased Texas historical marker

Photo by Virginia Diaz-Laughlin

Medrano stands in front of the Karankawa marker while filming 'Truly Texas Mexican.'

It's not often that a film has an impact past the box office, but one documentary has helped tell the truth about the Texas Gulf Coast's long-disparaged Karankawa people.

For years, the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and the Karankawa Tribe of Texas have fought for a corrected Texas Historical Commission marker in Corpus Christi. Houstonian Adán Medrano’s 2021 film, Truly Texas Mexican, helped finalize a push that will lead to a long-due correction on July 25.

The old marker was plainly offensive. Not only did it say the Karankawa people had "gained a reputation for savagery," but it repeated the long-discredited claim that they practiced cannibalism — a contention born out of the colonial need to justify violence against the tribe.

Medrano, a San Antonio native who currently lives in Houston, became part of the fight when he stood in front of the marker and made a direct appeal to correct the sign.

"I call upon the historians who live in Texas to come up and stand up and say, 'Take this down. This is a lie,'" he said during a scene in Truly Texas Mexican.

Two of them heard the call. Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi history professor Dr. Peter Moore and historian Dr. Tim Seiter of the University of Texas at Tyler joined the years-long Indigenous effort following the film's release. Led by the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and the Karankawa Tribe of Texas, the academics helped research and draft a replacement that honors them as one of Texas' first peoples.

The marker not only replaces racist mythmaking with scholarship and tribal knowledge, it presents the fact that Karankawa descendants aren't a historical footnote but a living community still present in South Texas today.

Medrano's advocacy here continues his work with the T exas Indigenous Food Project, a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating the Indigenous foodways of Texas and the Americas. But in many ways it is a continuation of a career devoted to amplifying voices rarely heard in popular culture. In 1976, he founded San Antonio's CineFestival, now the nation's longest-running Latine film festival.

At 10 am on July 25, representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and the Karankawa Tribe of Texas will unveil the corrected marker, joined by Medrano. Visitors can find it at 6001 Ennis Joslin Rd.

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