The weekend of June 5saw temperatures of 90 plus degrees and cloudless skies in Houston, but neither could keep music lovers away from the city’s premier music festival, Free Press Summer Fest (FPSF). The two-day festival featured 75 plus acts across six stages, a host of local food trucks, art exhibits, and a wide array of vendor tents. Due to heavy rains that pummeled Houston, the festival was forced to move from their traditional venue of Eleanor Tinsley Park’s green grass and rolling hills to the concrete slab of NRG Park’s Gold parking lot.
FPSF offered a wide range of acts including Stergill Simpson, The Sword, Benjamin Booker, Major Lazer, St. Vincent, Tycho, Future Islands, Glass Animals, Flume, Flogging Molly, and R. Kelly. Most notable was the abundance of local Houston artists such as Moji, hip-hop artist Guilla, Gio Chamba, and festival darlings The Suffers. In addition to the artists’ main sets, a select few played short shows in the Fancy Pants tent, the festival’s VIP lounge.
Highlights included performances by Welcome to Houston, Tycho, Major Lazer, Skrillex and Flogging Molly. Welcome to Houston (a collaborative of some of Houston’s most notable hip-hop and rap names featuring Bun-B, Slim Thug, Devin The Dude, Z-Ro, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Scarface, Lil Flip, and Lil Keke) was a much anticipated performance that did not fail to impress. Major Lazer’s high octane performance had the crowd dancing from the first beat to the last. Skrillex closed the festival and kept the party going well into the night with a surprise guest appearance at the FPSF “After Party” with Diplo.
In addition to the great music, FPSF offered some incredible bites at reasonable prices. Food trucks lined the edges of the festival entry and beer, mixed drinks, and non-alcoholic drink booths were in abundance much to the thirsty mouths of festivals goers. Although the concrete parking lot of NRG Park offered little respite from the Houston heat, water stations and sprinklers across FPSF kept festival goers hydrated and cool. Sculptures, psychedelic art cars, and a graffiti mural painted over the two-day festival, captured the attention of many festival goers.
With Houston being a short 1-hour flight and fares in the $100 range (if you can handle a 1-hour flight on Spirit) there’s no reason to miss this great festival in our own backyard.
