Las Cruces, Do You Remember Welcome Back Aggies?

For some NMSU students, the beginning of a new school year means more than finding classrooms, buying textbooks and getting back into a routine.

It means friends and music! Around 2017-2018, the Associated Students of New Mexico State University, or ASNMSU, helped turn the start of the semester into something students could genuinely look forward to. Outside Corbett Center, students gathered for Welcome Back Aggies concerts featuring artists who were making waves at the time, including MadeinTYO, Smokepurpp, the Ying Yang Twins and Skizzy Marz.

For the students and local community members those nights became part of the college experience.

There was something special about being around campus and suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a concert. You did not have to drive to El Paso or wait for an artist to choose the Las Cruces area. The show was happening right outside your dorm.

Then, the concerts faded away.

NMSU’s Crimson Kickoff continued to evolve, but the large artist driven roster was no more. Welcome Back concerts that many students remember from the late 2010s never quite returned in the same way. Years later, it is worth asking: could they? The Music Scene Never Left

Las Cruces may not be the largest city in the Southwest, but its music community has continued to grow. Artists across hip-hop, alternative and independent music continue to make their way through the area. In recent years, El Paso has seen performances from artists such as Karol G, Smokepurpp, and Dababy, while alternative and independent acts including Upon Your Dead Body, Blink 182 and Black Veil Brides have also found audiences in the Las Cruces and El Paso area. The scene exists. Students are listening. People are going to shows. And NMSU already has a venue capable of bringing thousands of them together.

The Pan American Center has a listed capacity of 12,572 people and has a long history of hosting concerts alongside NMSU athletics and university events. Its past concert history includes artists such as George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks, Pearl Jam and The Notorious B.I.G.

The building itself is not unfamiliar with music.

So why not use it more?

That question became especially interesting in 2019, when NMSU alumni helped bring Summer Jam to the Pan American Center featuring Tyga, DJ Mustard and A-Trak. The event demonstrated that there was still an appetite for a large scale hip-hop concert in Las Cruces.

For a city with a university, a large student population and a growing creative community, the possibility seems difficult to ignore. A Concert Could Be More Than A Concert Bringing back a Welcome Back concert does not necessarily mean recreating, the music has changed. The artists have changed. The way students discover music has changed.

A new version could reflect the Las Cruces of now. Imagine a nationally touring artist sharing a lineup with a local New Mexico or El Paso act. Local photographers and videographers documenting the night. Local clothing brands, artists and small businesses participating. Student organizations helped build the event. It could become a celebration of both NMSU and the creative community surrounding it.

That is perhaps what makes the idea of a comeback so interesting. Las Cruces has always had artists creating something out of a city that can sometimes feel overlooked by the rest of the country. Musicians, photographers, filmmakers, designers and other creatives have continued building their own communities here.

NMSU sits directly in the middle of that culture.

A large Welcome Back concert could give students a reason to celebrate returning to campus while also giving the city an opportunity to showcase what it has to offer. Could Crimson Kickoff Bring It Back? Crimson Kickoff is still an important part of welcoming students back to NMSU, with events designed to help new and returning Aggies get involved with campus life. 

But for students who remember the old Welcome Back concerts, there is still a question hanging around: What would happen if NMSU brought the concerts back?

Would students show up? Would the Las Cruces community support it? And perhaps most importantly, who would they want to see? Would today’s students want a major hip-hop artist? An alternative band? A rising artist from New Mexico or El Paso? Or maybe a lineup that combines all three?

 The Pan American Center already has the stage. The region already has a music scene.

And NMSU already has a tradition of welcoming students back. Maybe all that is missing is the music. Las Cruces, do you remember the Welcome Back Aggies concerts? And if Crimson Kickoff brought them back, who would you want to see take the stage?