Well unlike most other articles, this seems like something EVERYONE is agreeing on for once. So why can't something be done to make Victoria more enjoyable. There is so much that can be done to better the town, and tourism, It just seems like they don't want it!

I tried putting together a festival this past spring, and it did not go all that well, mostly because lack of money and help... And no one came! But the few that did show loved it and want me to do it again!

We know the 'City of Victoria' is not going to do it...
Anyway, with proper planning and help, and a little money, anyone can do it! And if its successful, that money will come right back to you if not more!

I believe our public servants are against festivals. Festivals attract the undesirables. There are options like waterparks and competitve sporting events but I don't see that in the near future. One more thing the side walks are getting paid by tax dollars but benefiting a residential development for a private developer SHHH dont let the cat out of the bag. In Victoria you really have to know there is always some individual benefiting from all this. Wait until you see who will benefit from the Juan Linn Elementary closure. Structurally sound School. Detar Hospital. OOOPS! Closing a perfectly placed school. Just in the wrong backyard.

people in victoria that know what has existed need to help the ones that always say 'it's too much work', could cost money, not in my part of town, get past thenselves. i found this discussion and site while reading on the revived 'macaroni line'. my wife and i are just back from a trip to butte montana (three days motel alone in butte was over $250) from eastern southdakota (texas is just as far) to see old houses and ride the tourist railroad and i am not rich well paid or retired. get the locomotive back and hassle the gangs not the folks that want to see the city with some life.

to many people just want everyone to have thier interests and are uninterested in what they do not like and will do all they can to sabatoge any new idea. i bet lots of the same people that are against something because of the 'current economic troubles' would have a different excuse if times were good. ie: we should wait for private investors, there are better uses for my tax money, this is only for out of towners, and dont forget those potential drinkers and druggies that may be attracted.

i will be at the free two day blues fest in sioux falls in july.

Victoria is a provincial town to end all provincial towns. It is a cultural wasteland. The climate is awful (it doesn't even have seasons, for goodness sake!) The average person is an oaf. It is the municipal equivalent of a new-country music video.

If you love fast food, insecure machismo, large automobiles, mid-life crises, and blind followers of useless trends, you will feel right at home here. And only a tourist wanting to experience the novelty of such a place would ever willingly come here.

Victoria could be more, but it is not.

From what I've heard, the biggest problem that Victoria has is that the different entities in control of things don't get along. The city can't cooperate with the county can't cooperate with the school district. IMO, for example, the school district should have partnered with the city or county to build a really nice auditorium at the now Memorial Senior Campus. One that seats at least 3,000 people rather than the one that is planned. Now we have the Victoria College auditorum and the community theatre. If any auditorium event is larger than that, it has to be held in a church, and the new VISD auditorium will be no larger than the existing. Even Port Lavaca has a nicer auditorium than Victoria. When I mentioned this to a city employee, I was told that this couldn't happen. The city doesn't get along with the school district.

Nothing well organized and planned will happen to improve our events or tourism unless we are all working together for the good of the community!!

We need to bring back the Macarroni Fest or the Armadillo Festival or something. We visited the TomTom Festival in Yoakum recently just to have something different to do on a Saturday. Even the small community of Yoakum can sustain an event over years. Why can't we?, lack of cooperation in our town, that's why. What a shame!!!

This place has gone from a place of free family entertainment to a place of nothingtodoville. Jackson county recently completed phase 1 of their recreation complex at brackenridge on lake texana. They had a good concert for their grand opening and they have another one scheduled for july 4. if anyone is interested, the price is $20 for the day and I beleive there are five bands through out the day. Also fireworks after dark.

HMMMM.........Is Victoria missing out on tourist dollars? you betcha

Thank you Pilot,
One thing that a lot of people don't realize, was back then in the early 70's to mid 70's, was that Henry Wolf one of the advocate feature writers, recently retired, use to own a "head shop" downtown.

He always had a good time at the Armadillo Festival, after all it was held right out of the front door of his business.

Your kinda right BigJ,

The Armadillo festival in 1973 had a estimated attendance of 10,000 to 15000, all downtown , lots of people from Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Corpus.

The city council and police thought the attendees where all a bunch of hippys.

Which they weren't but it so annoyed the city fathers, they could not stand all those "out of towners" having a good time in De Leon Plaza, that they just had to move the festival to the park.........one year later it was history.

So much for tourism, the city killed the only good festival that they ever had.

bring back tha Armadillo Confab!!!!

Are you guys for real? Granted....Victoria has some interesting history but is hardly a "tourist attraction"......any money spent to attract tourists in my opinion is wasted money. Who is going to come to Victoria to see the "sights"......what sights?....and entertainment.....what entertainment?

Scorpio you nailed it, my friend. Victoria is a dirty, gang infested, crime ridden town with no worthy attractions. I feel sorry for the young people in this city. It is no wonder they end up at pasture parties drinking on weekends. There is simply nothing here that would cause anyone unfamiliar with Victoria to want to come here. Even the restaurants are nearly all fast food joints. Plenty of Dollar Stores though. Actually, the laughable Texas Zoo is probably the only thing that could be called an attraction.

'Heads in Beds'...Victoria has to have them to raise additional tax monies to finance a Convention and Visitors Bureau, and if there aren't any events worth coming to, or sights to see, or things to do, then why should I come to Victoria? Since Victoria decided to release the previous Visitor Bureau director (she's now in Goliad), there hasn't been anyone to watch over the department.
To get the word out, Victoria has to get the word out about why people should come here. Simply, it hasn't been done...there is no presence of Victoria at tourism trade shows I've attended and I've been going to them for years now. Events? The previous posters have addressed that...
Victoria is a tourism train wreck that needs to built up from the bottom. Plain and simple.

When I was growing up, we traveled to victoria to shop, go to the movie or go out to eat. They use to have a water slide but that closed. The put put golf is a joke. The skate rink is old and out of date like the bowling alley's. The movie theater is expensive and dirty. The dollar theater is gone. Shopping sucks here now. The big stores are gone the mall is a joke. This town needs a attraction to bring people and business here. They need to clean the ditch by target and the mall. Our city government has really failed us. The only thing that was a positive move was the hiking trail that looks nice. We need a amusement park or water park something to bring people here for vacation and relaxation. What would be nice is if the state allowed gambling because casino's bring in lots of jobs and money. But with all that comes crime we need to improve greatly on our law enforcement offices. This goes back to city government. We are doomed unless at election time we change things.........

WHO IS to blame for the decline in tourism?
WHO CAN increase tourism?
WHAT HAPPENED to the MACARONI FEST?
WHAT HAPPENED to ALL THE FESTIVITIES that were held in the Town Square?
IF THE CITY AND COUNTY could get together and DO SOMETHING-that would be great!
I GOT A FEELING MOST OF THE MONEY is being earmarked for defense of our officials--and I could be wrong!
I DON'T WANT TO GO TO OTHER TOWNS AND SPEND MY MONEY. I'D LIKE TO SPEND IT HERE! I WOULD SAVE GAS, WEAR AND TEAR ON MY VEHICLE, AND HAVE MORE MONEY TO SPEND LOCALLY.
I go out of town to the movies with my family because it's cheaper in the long run. It's almost $15 for a large drink and a large popcorn!-THAT'S NUTS !
C'mon ELECTED OFFICIALS----DO SOMETHING. AND TO THOSE WHO WERE NOT ELECTED--- EARN YOUR $$$$$ BY MAKING THE CITIZENS HAPPY. Maybe that's wishful thinking!

KUDOS TO DR MCNEIL WITH HIS PLANS TO UPGRADE THE PUTT PUTT COURSE! A VERY WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT!

Crime and drugs often kill outdoor gatherings. To properly protect the citizens the city has to often pay overtime, unless the sales tax dollars create the funds for these expenses they are doomed to failure.

my neighbor said that a few years ago, park and rec got a new bossman and that he put a stop to all the outdoor fun. she mentioned concerts in the park and street dances in the summer. this is beginning to be the most boring place Ive lived yet.

dont forget athletics...the great Leon Fillmore had huge success on teams coming to play softball. Teams were renting rooms in surrounding towns!

The new complex and the old one is just sitting there. Get 40 teams here; you will need 400 rooms. Then meals, gas, drinks and gas. But the hotel, city and tourney directors dont work together. The complex rental fees are not doable for anyone.

Not to mention, since they moved Market Days back to the park, business died down drastically! I went to Goliad Market Days, and talked to several vendors who have decided not to come back to Victoria Market Days at all-- or at least until they move it back downtown. How sad!

the only attractions i see being able to draw people from outside the area are hunting, fishing and golf.

now victoria is a retail hub for all the surrounding areas, maybe they could look into growing that area.

The street dances used to be popular. I remember them well, too. But then I think the citizens living in downtown got ordinances that only one function a month could go on at DeLeon Plaza, even during the summer, and that stopped that.

It really is quite silly that Victoria misses out on tourism. We have a rich history, but there's no good or exciting way to learn about it, like there is in Goliad. There aren't neat little shopping areas like Cuero. We don't have any type of water attractions, and the park, while pretty, can be a scary place to go. Sundays, especially, when a lot of people have time to go because of the weekend, seems overcrowded with gangster-like individuals cruising up and down the roads, blasting their rap music at full, and harrassing individuals who park in shady spots to eat their picnic food, because they've evidently taken that gangster's regular spot.

I believe it was Yorktown, last year, which had Kevin Fowler playing at their outdoor festival. I've been several times in the past years, but with Kevin Fowler playing, their streets were jam-packed with people enjoying the music and the tons of vendors that showed up for a market days-like atmosphere. Why can't Victoria do something like that? Admission was free, but food and drinks were flowing from the different booths, and I think it was a great boon for a small town like Yorktown. Shut off the streets downtown for one weekend a year, and see what this town could accomplish in the way of entertainment and tourism.

Rember the Armadillo festival? There seemed to be a lot of people that came for that. What ever happened to it?

Victoria is known as the crossroads of South Texas. Every one stops, goes to the bathroom, then go on their way..

well you can't just say that, this or that would be a good thing! someone has to actually create a group of people that want to start a new festival or tourist attraction. there are historical sites in this area who's location is kept secret for fear of illegal digging. This city should focus on it's history, Victoria should could possibly have something like Goliad's historical places. That would bring people to Victoria. what about having a founder's day festival with vendors of all types and musical entertainment!

One idea I have about monthly or weekly events could be: have an inventors day, select an idea such as 'Best Use of Recycling A Plastic Bottle's', 'Hover Craft', have small awards given, which could be donated and have the groups divided by age, 6 to 10, etc. This could be done all year long and the schools might give extra credit to students that enter a project, besides there are a lot of adults also that have ideas, and maybe Victoria or surrounding counties might come up with great inventions that would benefit our country. Next you could have box car races, Story Book day with characters dressed and reading, I know there are many ideas out there, and many that live here and the many surrounding counties with hidden talents. Just a few thoughts.

Tourist today depend on the net and news media for information on where to travel for a good time. Jmaltuna is correct, there are numerous possiblities for the area, for example a Tex-Mex Festival could use the current resources of all the cafe's, tourist would vote on best foods and etc. Add a few bands and etc.

Victoria is not alone, there is not a single town in Calhoun County on the touringtexas.com website. The listing for Victoria is a link to the Victoria City website, not what I would call a tourist friendly site.

newearth is right, Victoria has 2 things going for it, the park & river & the park was ruined back in the '80s by the City Council whe they decided to put up the posts, close off portions & make the streets all 1 way. The park had tons of traffic back then, today, not so much. There used to be fun stuff to do there, not anymore. The street dances in the '90s were fun as well & they too went away. It seems as if the city leaders do not want the citizens to have any fun, much less draw tourists.

Perhaps The City of Victoria could attract Indicted City Official Circus Tourism dollars.

Might even get a return on the money the taxpayer is going to spend of these clowns.

the only thing we had was that old locomotive and they gave that away! that would've looked good in a different location!

We can't even get a street dance going, why would a tourist want to come here? Seems like there could be some things learned from local nearby festivals like the Tom Tom, Turkey Fest, Strawberry Festival, etc. Whatever happened to the Macaroni Festival, it was really awesome. We have all kinds of areas where we could have a huge swap meet every so often, or concerts in our more open areas. We have two football stadiums that don't get used most of the year, a huge field area at the Community Center, I really don't understand why a town of this size doesn't have more going on. I love Schroeder Hall and the bands they feature, would love to see more that going on in town. I'd like to see something showing off those local bands mentioned in a recent article that perform original music, along with cover bands. I guess maybe it's a money issue to get it going.

I enjoy going to Goliad and Cuero, has that 'old town feeling', shops are within walking distance from each other, Victoria would have a long way to go to compete with that, downtown Victoria seems to have only banking, lawyers, courthouses, not something I believe would interest many, yet they plan on putting a beautiful sidewalk downtown, I don't see the point, but then the bankers, lawyers, criminals might get some enjoyment out of that. Victoria in my opinon has two lovely things, a beautiful river, and park. So sad those two are not used for weekly events that would spark tourism.