Committee presses Bird Promotions on event finances, ownership of festival assets

South Padre Island Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) committee members pressed Bird Promotions representatives on invoicing, marketing expenditures and the legal/operational ownership of several island festivals during a committee meeting. Raul Garcia and Ricky Garcia of Bird Promotions attended to answer questions about four events — Crawfish Festival, Chrome in the Sand, Tacos and Tequila, and Craft Beer — that the committee had previously funded.

Committee members said they had been led to believe the festivals were city-owned or “in-house” events when the committee approved seed funding, and asked why websites, marketing accounts and related invoices were under the promoter’s control. “It was sold to us as a city event,” a committee member said, adding that committee members and some city leaders had been surprised to learn the CVB does not own the websites or other assets. Raul Garcia responded that the events are his productions working closely with the city and that Bird Promotions has worked with the CVB for about three years.

The comm…