New on the list of events taking place as part of San Antonio’s 17th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza is an original mariachi music songwriting competition. Original songs and arrangements are wanted for submission. Songs must be recorded and emailed as an MP3 file to cynthia@mariachimusic.com by Monday, November 21.

This is the first year an original songwriting competition takes place as part of the Extravaganza even though there are many mariachi musicians and vocalists have been writing their own songs for years. The competition serves as a platform for creative writers to submit their work, get some feedback from members of the world renowned Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan and be recognized for their accomplishments. The songwriting competition takes place during San Antonio’s 17th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza November 27 – December 4. The Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza is an 8-day mariachi music festival with over a dozen events and hundreds of mariachi music performances. The event culminates with 2 concerts featuring the world renowned and Mexico City based Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan at the Lila Cockrell Theater December 3-4. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.com.

All participants in the mariachi songwriting competition must be registered for the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza by logging onto mariachimusic.com. For more information please call Cynthia Munoz at 210-225-3353.