Encore event will close out the season

El Nuevo Imperio, a band from Crete, Nebraska, will headline 2023’s fifth and final Hot Summer Nights street party in Uptown Denison.

This weekend’s event is an encore event added to the schedule by Hot Summer Nights organizer Taylor Borkowski.

El Nuevo Imperio plays regional Mexican music.

“Yuliana Rivas recommended them,” Borkowski said. “They played here for her daughter’s graduation party last year.”

Borkowski talked to Eduardo Amaya, the band’s lead singer and schedule manager, and got them to put Denison on their schedule.

Amaya told The Denison Free Press that the five-member band has been together for three years.

“We play almost every weekend,” he said. “We’ve gone out to play in Kansas City, we play a lot of Iowa places, Minneapolis and Oklahoma City. We never went to Dallas but we got a couple calls to play there.”

The band has played for events like Hot Summer Nights and plays in a lot of night clubs, Amaya said.

He and bandmate Edwin Alarcon started the band together.

“We met through a previous employer,” Amaya said. “I knew he was in a band and knew how to play a lot of instruments, and I was just learning. I always enjoyed singing, so I told him, ‘Let’s do something,’ and a few years later we ended up doing something. Here we are, now”

Amaya works as an equipment transporter for a construction company during the week and looks forward to performing on weekends.

“What I’ve heard a lot from the people we’ve played with previously, and a lot of musicians friends that I know, is they really like the atmosphere we bring to the crowd,” he said. “We always have some of the fans in the crowd come up on stage if they want to sing a song. We try to bring it all together for the crowd. It’s not just about us.”

This weekend’s Hot Summer Nights Encore event was scheduled on a Saturday to accommodate workers at the local packing plants, Borkowski said.

The event will be set up much like the previous events that have taken place this summer – with the addition of The Cuban Corner food truck, from Carroll, which serves classic Cuban food. 

Borkowski said that the Hot Summer Nights events are getting attention from outside of the local area. She noted that Pella Corporation, of Carroll, is a $500 sponsor of the encore event.

“We’re reaching a larger audience,” she said.

Oher sponsors include Ramon Patino (Cronk’s/Tienda El Mexicano), El Michoacano, El Rey, La Autentica, La Estrella, Faron Sound Equipment, El Ausente, Betty Schultz, Braids Galore, Sweet Peas, Bella’s Jewels and Govari Construction.

Hot Summer Nights Encore will run from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday.

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