'Tammi Fest' in Martindale offers music with a purpose

For Terri Hendrix, life is art. It is obvious listening to the Grammy award winner, but it was also a trait that ran in the family.

Just a short float down the river, a festival brought drinks, food, vendors, lots of people and great music to the downtown Martindale area, and every bit of it was for a good cause. Hendrix, is also executive director of the local nonprofit Own Your Own Universe, organized Tammi Fest with the help of her 27-year business partner, musician and music producer, Lloyd Maines.

The festival was originally known as Playing for Good, but was renamed Tammi Fest after Hendrix’ sister, who passed away in 2018. Hendrix said Tammi had a “great sense of humor” and was an LBGTQ community member, a veteran and an artist–clearly an inherited trait.

“She was a wonderful, kind person,” Hendrix said, adding that she liked to do abstract sketches. “She would like to take a plain old Sharpie or a pen and just fill it in–took her forever.” The festival has been occurring annually since 2012 when the nonprofit was created.

When planning the event, Hendrix said she thought of successful music festivals across the United States that she has performed at, which all had “vendors that were local artists and then music.” Tammi Fest was a two-day event. The first day was a ticketed concert, and all profits went to OYOU, Hendrix’ nonprofit, which aims at making the arts available to everyone. Those that volunteer for the OYOU clearly love what they do, as Hendrix said most have been involved from its inception.

“It is a nonprofit so that we can get grants to underwrite the hard costs to be able to put on events, like Tammi Fest, and to be able to pay musicians a fair wage,” Hendrix said. “In order for art to be able to support itself, you have to provide a venue in which it can thrive. And that’s why, I feel like the OYOU can come in–by paying teachers, by hiring teachers that have disabilities [and] by providing a festival where we are paying musicians to come in and work.”

Day one of the festival, Sept. 29, featured an acoustic concert with Hendrix, award winning musician and co-writer of Lil’ Jack Slade–the Grammy award winning song by The Chicks, Maines–Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductee and father of Natalie Maines from The Chicks, Adam Carroll and Chris Carroll. Maines produced both Adam and Chris Carroll, and Hendrix said “he is an incredibly kind and wonderful person” and one of the most beloved in Texas music.

The first night’s concert was an intimate event, which Hendrix said had approximately 150 attendees.

Day two, Sept. 30, was a family friendly event that started at 3 p.m. and went into the night. It had live performances, delicious burgers by the Martindale Cafe, beer and vendors. It featured a fantastic and diverse lineup with musical performances by Elijah Stone, HalleyAnna Finlay, The Ditch Crickets–a cajun band that Hendrix said has a “great groove,” Possessed by Paul James–a funky, one-man band, Rochelle & the Sidewinders– which Hendrix said has a “really gifted vocalist,” and Henry Invisible–who she said gets the crowd going and is great to work with.

The event was a blast, and everybody was grooving. It was apparent that Hendrix was also enjoying the fruits of her labor as she joined the children and the rest of the crowd dancing her heart out to all of the dynamic performances. The event took place right on the town square, so one could walk into Harpers Vintage Store–a local vintage clothing and furniture store—and shop around in between bands, in addition to the local vendor booths.

Hendrix said putting together an event with a roster like Tammi Fest required commitment, heart, wise budgeting, keeping the community in mind, purpose and reason. She said that it's critical to ensure that the artists that are booked are in line with the mission of the event, and it’s all about getting “the right people together at the right time.” Hendrix stressed that for any nonprofit event, particularly the OYOU, it is important to make sure that the tickets are affordable for everyone. She said that there are a lot of logistics involved as well such as making sure that the musicians can easily load in and out and then go park.

“We have to make sure that everything is nice and organized for people,” Hendrix said. “A lot of people are coming in from out of town. Martindale is pretty rural, and parking is limited.”

Hendrix said that with the weather and economic situations in Texas going to “extremes” as of late, her mission with this event was just to lift peoples’ spirits.

“Just bring out the family and have fun,” Hendrix said. For more information on OYOU and upcoming events go to terrihendrix.com/