If you're a fan of music, margaritas, and a town that knows how to party, ya gotta love San Antonio during Fiesta. The Power Pep Band spent three fun days performing in San Antonio from April 23-25, 2003.

Our flights arrived about 2PM on Wednesday April 23, and by 7PM we were rockin' out at the San Antonio River Walk. Here's a short clip from Midnight Hour, our opening number (AVI file, 3.7MB). Not only did we get to play for the crowd that gathered near the performance area, but we also got to serenade the folks drifting by on the Yanaguana River Cruises, including a few mariachi bands. We wished Leora a Hap-PPB Birthday that she won't forget for a while and think we entertained the crowd at least as much as we entertained ourselves. Click here for more River Walk performance photos.

On Thursday morning we hopped the streetcar right outside our hotel and headed for El Mercado, the Mexican Market. Actually, "stuffed a streetcar to the gills with a few people clinging to the rear platform" is closer to what actually happened — turns out that trolleys don't really expect to haul a full band (including a couple of sousaphones) very often! El Mercado is a big place (the largest Mexican market outside Mexico, in fact), with room for 3 or 4 main stages. We drew the lunchtime shift at the Saba Stage, which meant that (a) we got a great crowd, which (b) stayed far away from the open area in front of the stage to hang out in the shade. Only mad dogs and PPB members go out in the noonday sun! Before the performance we met a couple visiting from Wisconsin who promised to polka when we did Beer Barrel. And if you wanna hear what you missed, check out this clip of Beer Barrel Polka (AVI file, 3.69MB) from the River Walk concert. Elsewhere in the show we got an enthusiastic group of auxiliary percussionists to help out on Late in the Evening, launched beach balls into the crowd during the Beach Boys set, and generally had a fine (if toasty) time.

Time for some lunch! Or to be more precise, time for vast quantities of beverages and some lunch (we do know how to keep our priorities in order). Despite the crowds still thronging the marketplace, we got tables relatively quickly (blessings on you, La Margarita Restaurant!!!) and gorged on delicious Mexican food and Adult Beverages. Ahhhh! We decided to turn the trip back to the hotel into photo ops for the band. The must-do picture, of course, was out in front of the Alamo, San Antonio's shrine to Texas independence. Click here for all the pictures from the day.

Friday provided the opportunity for a different kind of gig. As it turned out, a very different kind of gig! Splashtown San Antonio is a big water park, just the sort of thing we needed for cooling off after crisping ourselves on Thursday. We set up under a canopy right next to the Wave Pool and serenaded folks enjoying the watery fun throughout the park. We even coaxed the park manager to join our percussion line (and she's got rhythm!). But this gig really came alive after we finished the official performance. That's when we doffed our official PPB duds, pulled on poolwear, and headed for Siesta del Rio, the "lazy river" winding through the park.

Nothing could be more tempting than bright orange inner tubes, cool water, and a chance to play Floatin' Down the Old Green River the way it was meant to be played — and since we can resist anything except temptation (apologies to Oscar Wilde), we soon had a huge orange flotilla gliding through the park. We did hit one snag while loading up; Floatin' is a tuba feature, and we learned that you can't balance a sousaphone player inside an inner tube, no matter how hard you try. No problem — our sousa simply hopped into water, bestriding it like a Colossus of old. We did substitute auxiliary percussion for woodwinds (even we have a limit to our craziness), but otherwise put on as authentic a performance as is possible while floating along on your back with the director waving wildly (and largely futilely) from somewhere in the pack. This one now heads our Zaniest Performance list, edging out the time we played Hall of the Mountain King in an enormous cornfield maze.