MARFA — This past Saturday, local restaurant Bee’s Hive served up food, live music and dancing for a Father’s Day celebration on a packed South Abbot Street. The event brought together Marfa residents for revelry that ran late into the night, and for a good cause — the party served as a fundraiser for the Marfa Chamber of Commerce’s Marfa Lights Festival, ultimately bringing in around $1,000 for the annual bash, according to Chamber President Abby Boyd.
Attendees enjoyed fresh gordita and chicken flauta plates made by Bee’s Hive staff, live music put on by the restaurant staff and DJ La Unica — with accompaniment of Hector Sanchez’s Grupo Ambicion — and dancing in the street.
Boyd credits the spawn of the idea to Bee’s Hive owner Bee Garcia, who threw out the idea for a fundraiser when she happened upon a chamber meeting.
“This was conceptualized around happy hour at Planet Marfa, like a lot of good ideas are,” said Boyd. “Bee stopped by our table where we were having our Marfa Lights planning session, offering to host a fundraiser here at the restaurant, and things came together pretty quickly.”
Boyd emphasized the kindness that was brought to the forefront by everyone involved. Annual events like the Marfa Lights Festival require hard work and a large financial budget, and Garcia’s generosity helped make that possible, she said.
“She just offered her services up because she is just a good-hearted person, and that is kind of what the Chamber of Commerce relies on to make the events that we do possible” Boyd said.
Marfa Chamber of Commerce Vice President Yasmine Guevara, who also helped provide music for the event as local DJ La Unica, said community events like Saturday’s serve an important role beyond fundraising — they help bring locals together and keep traditions alive.
“We produced this idea to have a street dance — we used to have street dances back in the day, other than the Marfa Lights Festival,” Guevara said. “We just wanted to bring this back, bring some Tejano, Norteno and Country just to get the community out here and all to raise money for the Marfa Lights Festival.”
As a professional DJ working for about three years, Guevara said she believed that music is vital to uniting a crowd and can create an overall warm feeling for an event. “Music is super important to me personally; I want to get our culture out there through music,” Guevara said.
As the event progressed more into the starry night, many more locals began to participate by bringing chairs to sit and listen or dance to their hearts’ content. Marfa resident David Marwitz said the fun-filled atmosphere spoke to what makes the town special. “It’s been great,” Marwitz said. “You can feel the passion and how family-oriented [it is]. Everyone is dancing and having a good time. It’s what Marfa is all about, art on one side and music on the other.”