Beeville — Fans packed the Beeville Expo Center Rodeo Arena this past Friday and Saturday night for what turned out to be an energetic, fun-filled Winterfest 2012.

Tejano superstars Siggno and Duelo exploded on stage and helped raise the attendance from last year to 1,400 on Friday alone.

Event coordinator Isabel Ramirez said, “We doubled our attendance on Friday, which is really good.

“Siggno always draws a crowd. We had a lot of people coming in from the Laredo area to see Duelo.”

And Saturday night, the arena filled up quickly with people from Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi who wanted to see the awesome country lineup of Jon Wolfe, James Lann and, of course, The Randy Rogers Band.

“Saturday, we had 2,200, and Friday, we had 1,400, Ramirez added.

“We did a lot better than we did on Friday last year and about 900 less on Saturday.”

But the drop in number on Saturday probably had a lot to with the fact that Gary Allen and Kevin Fowler were playing a few miles away in Corpus Christi that same night.

And even with the local hotels filled all the time, some people from out of town still managed to squeeze in and use their Winterfest hotel discount, which is pretty impressive.

But, overall, the night was a complete success, especially for the groups that were invited to help out and raise some money for their organizations.

“We don’t have any vendors at this festival, so we invited Project Graduation to just fill in the food portion of it.

“We know that Project Graduation did better than they did last year, and all those proceeds go to Project Graduation 2013.”

And the Bee County Chamber also hired a local church to help out for a good cause.

“New Life Baptist Church said that the money we are paying them will go to purchase an electric wheelchair for a young little girl,” Ramirez said.

“We hired them to coordinate the parking for us, because parking is always a big issue.”

Both nights’ concerts were electrifying. The crowds were outrageous and the screaming fans were amazing.

“This year, I don’t know what it was. It seemed a little more like everyone was into it,” she added.

“Everyone was having a good time.”

So now, the wait begins for Winterfest 2013, which should be another event not to be missed, if you judge by the crowd’s reaction.

“I definitely want to thank the volunteers and the Winterfest committee and the local businesses and everyone who was out there and helped with the event and helped get the word out and showed their support.

“This event would not be possible without all those helping hands.”

Paul Gonzales is entertainment writer at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 116, or at thescene@mySouTex.com.