Atlanta becoming big market for Mexican acts

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Atlanta may be known as the hub for R&B and hip-hop, but regional Mexican acts are finding a welcoming audience there too.

Market research firm Latin Force's Geoscape data shows that Atlanta's Latino population grew more than 900 percent between 1990 and 2008, to make up nearly 10 percent of the city's population. The survey named Mexico as the dominant country of origin for Georgia's Latinos. (Charlotte, North Carolina, which has about one-third as many Latinos as Atlanta, will experience a whopping 1,680 percent Latino growth from 1990 to 2013, Geoscape projects.)

In its second year, the Cinco de Mayo festival Fiesta Atlanta grew to at least 45,000 attendees from 30,000 in 2007, organizer Ralph Herrera of Lanza Group said.

The free event at Centennial Olympic Park opened with performances by a rock and a pop group, as well as Cuban singer Albita. But "the major headliners were Mexican regional because that was what our market demands," Herrera said, citing performances by La Dinastia de Tuzantla, Michoacan, El Guero y Su Banda Centenario and Brazeros Musical de Durango.

Herrera, a veteran of sponsorship sales at Los Angeles' Fiesta Broadway and Miami's Calle Ocho, said that Fiesta Atlanta turned a small profit in its second year, with sponsorships "up slightly."

Herrera is starting a similar event, Fiesta Georgia, in the Gwinnett County suburbs outside Atlanta to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month in September.

"These secondary markets are exploding," said Carlos Alvarez, central U.S. promotions representative for El Guero's label, A.R.C. Discos. The group had played Atlanta two or three times in the 10 months before the May 4 event. "We knew the market had grown a lot and that it was good for our format. But not on the level of that day," Alvarez said.

Atlanta and such secondary markets as Oklahoma City; Kansas City, Missouri; and Indianapolis are benefiting from a developing structure of venues and media outlets, particularly radio, that are catering to the regional Mexican audience.

In 2003, Clear Channel launched Viva, a Latin pop station in Atlanta, and, based on its success, converted an English-language rock station in the market to regional Mexican 105.3 El Patron (WBZY) at the end of 2006, general sales manager Al Vicente said.

"There is some cannibalization, so Viva stopped growing as much as it was by itself, but that would've happened (anyway)," Vicente said. Ad revenue has risen, particularly from national brands, according to Vicente.

Reuters/Billboard