Free concert this Saturday for MATO ticket holders
Some free, live music for Midnight at the Oasis (MATO) ticket holders will be in store on Saturday for this year’s festival celebrating classic cars with entertainment and various events for the community.
While most of the MATO concerts, which take place on Friday and Saturday evenings, require the purchase of a separate ticket to attend, the “Music at the Cantina” concert will be free to attend for MATO ticket holders. Chairman for MATO or “Captain Midnight” Rodney Short said the free MATO concert began last year and garnered positive feedback.
The Cantina is slated for Saturday from about 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will feature the McCoy Brothers and the Chris Fast band.
Short noted the Caballeros de Yuma call it the “El Jefe Cantina” as a tip-of-the-hat to the late Ralph Odgen, who was a past member of the group and who helped spark the idea for the free concert.
Other bands slated to play for MATO include Crossfire (Stevie Ray Vaughn Tribute Band), classic rock band Mother Mercy, Fortunate Son (Credence Clearwater Tribute), Turn the Page (Bob Seger Tribute Band), Mirage (Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band) and Hollywood U2 (U2 Tribute band).
The MATO event itself will also include “show and shines” for the classic cars, a rally, fun run and a Friday night cruise. Kicking off the MATO festival will be the Fun Run and the Rally on Main Street, both of which will take place on Thursday.
Anyone with a classic car from 1972 and older may participate in the Fun Run, which begins at 4:30 p.m. The Fun Run operates like a game of poker and consists of a car route that takes about 60 minutes to complete.
According to the Caballeros de Yuma website, those who wish to participate in the Run need not be a registered entrant to MATO. The Fun Run will begin at the Desert Hills Golf Course Clubhouse, 1245 Desert Hills Drive and end at the Armed Services Park, 291 S. Gila St.
“The cool thing about the Fun Run is it gives folks a chance to go out, run their cars and see Yuma,” Short said. “It goes from destination to destination so participants get to see a lot of Yuma. Also, a lot of car owners in the run are from out of town.”
Five raffle tickets to win a 1966 Chevy C10 Truck and guaranteed entry into next year’s MATO event will be the prizes for the first place winner of the Fun Run. Second and third place winners will receive five and three raffle tickets for the truck respectively.
Raffle tickets, priced at $20 each, will also be sold at the MATO event.
After the run, Thursday’s rally will begin at around 5 p.m. in Historic Downtown. Like the Fun Run, all are welcomed to bring their classic cars and park them next to other classic vehicles. The rally will last until about 8 p.m. and no thru traffic will be allowed on Main Street for the duration of the rally.
Following the Rally and Fun Run, MATO will continue each day through Sunday at the Yuma Civic Center, 1440 W. Desert Hills Drive. Tickets will be sold at the gate and range in price from $1 to $5 for the show and shine each day. Tickets for certain concerts will be sold separately.
The Friday night cruise will begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Yuma Park ‘N Swap, 4000 S. Fourth Avenue and ends at the Ray Kroc Complex/Desert Sun Stadium (adjacent to Civic Center).
The Caballero website states that for Friday night’s cruise, all participants must display the window sticker/registration number given at registration in the windshield of the registered vehicle to participate in the cruise and for parking in the stadium. A map for cruise spectators is available on the Caballeros de Yuma website.
Proceeds from Caballeros de Yuma events directly benefit community organizations, Short said. He noted that MATO is unique in that it is a community effort, down to the food vendors who are members of various nonprofits and service organizations that utilize the festival for fundraising.
The calm weather Yuma typically experiences during the festival, he added, is another bonus in drawing attendees. Additionally, about 980 cars participate in MATO with car owners typically coming from around the region and California.
“We’ve been extremely blessed with some great weather that really makes everybody come out,” Short said. “It’s a huge community event. It gets larger every year. This is the 26th year, so people who came as kids are now coming with their own kids.”
For more information, visit www.midnightattheoasis.net or call (928) 343-1715.