By Adrian Gomez

Planning a festival takes a lot of work. Luckily, El Paso native Seth Dodson knows a little something about the process.

After booking shows for The Hideout Inn, a Chicago music venue and community space, he became a marketing associate for Pitchfork. He worked his way up to Executive Director of Festivals and Events for Pitchfork, overseeing its Chicago festival operations and launching the Pitchfork Music Festival in Mexico City, London and Berlin.

On Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, Dodson and his team’s hard work comes to fruition as the inaugural Sol Summit Music & Cultura Festival will take place in downtown El Paso. 

Beginning on Saturday, the two-day event will feature the likes of Bomba Estéreo, DIIV, Frontera Bugalú and El Mariachi Manchester. Continuing on Sunday, The Flaming Lips, Ximena Sariñana, Sparta, Estereomance, Sultanes del Yonke, Doom Well and Bloomwave will take to the stage.

The festival has been a long time coming as Eric Pearson, president and CEO of the El Paso Community Foundation (EPCF), wanted to bring a homegrown festival back to El Paso. Dodson, Sol Summit’s festival director, was introduced to Pearson about a year and a half ago. This is when the two El Pasoans began to conjure up some magical dreams.

SOL SUMMIT MUSIC AND CULTURAL FESTIVAL
WHEN: Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3
WHERE: San Jacinto Plaza, 114 W Mills Ave., El Paso
HOW MUCH: $165.12, Two-day pass; $90.98 for one-day pass at solsummitmusic.com

“(Eric) expressed that it was always a dream of his and the foundation to kind of have a music festival,” Dodson says. “He kind of thought, with my experience and skills, that we should make a run at it.”

Pearson has been at the helm of EPCF since 2011 and witnessed the community being built with the Neon Desert Music Festival. After COVID, the festival didn’t return to the city and Pearson saw a hole in the city’s cultural calendar.

“He wanted to offer a festival for an audience that was a little bit older than what Neon Desert catered to,” Dodson says, adding that there are successful festivals in El Paso that skew toward country, EDM and Latin music.

“There’s still kind of a hole for something a little bit more rock and roll,” he says. “The vibe of Sol Summit is indie rock, Latin alternative kind of stuff. Kind of a little bit of my Pitchfork roots in there kind of inform some of the curation. But, you know, I think it was really important for Eric that this festival be bilingual. You know, 50/50 English-Spanish acts. It’s important for me that it’s 50/50, male and female representation as well across the lineup.”

Dodson emphasized the importance of the festival featuring more women performers.

“It’s always been important for me, in the curation of the events I’ve done, that there is that, that equal representation,” he says. “The hope here for Sol Summit is to kind of grow and get about 3,000 to 4,000 people a day, but the intention is to grow and grow and really be something that’s on the national stage.”

Dodson also wanted to create a festival that is just as diverse and unique as El Paso. About one-third of the acts are El Paso acts, he says. “I think it’s also a great platform to elevate them with some national and international, recognizable names and artists that we’re bringing in too.”

That’s something that the local bands chosen to play the festival appreciate — the opportunity to get exposure along with these national acts. El Paso band Bloomwell says they’re stoked to play the festival and thought the opportunity was fake at first, but once they realized it was a real opportunity, they were fully on board.

Over the course of the two-day event, Dodson says there will be more than just music to enjoy. There will be a number of art installations, including Xingaderas, an El Paso creative initiative that specializes in paper-mâché mask-making and figurine creation. There will also be a craft market with about a dozen local artisans and crafters, in the plaza, selling their wares and there will also be a food truck program, which will be diverse in its offerings.

“As we kind of continue to evolve beyond year one, I hope to add more and more to that and kind of expand out of the weekend as well with more lead-up shows and after parties and artists conversations and stuff like that,” Dodson says.

With the proceeds, the nonprofit festival plans to cover the costs of the festival and the rest will go back to the foundation, which spreads funds throughout the city with grants for museums, animal rescue work, kids issues, health and artists.

While there’s not one way to experience the festival, Dodson says the festival is programmed for its two stages to not have any overlap — meaning while one stage is live, the other one is getting set up.

“If everybody wants to see every single band, that is totally easy. And I designed that too,” he says. “That’ll be very easy for folks to see what they want. I just encourage folks to come out early and check out some music. If the band that’s playing is not your vibe, go check out the craft market. You know, have a margarita in the park, sit under a tree and catch your breath. I encourage folks to come out early, if they can just to experience some stuff they may not be familiar with.”