The skies opened up in Houston this weekend and washed festival goers out of Eleanor Tinsley Park. About halfway through the Saturday performances and only a few shows deep on Sunday, attendees of Free Press Summer Fest were asked to evacuate the premises and take shelter due to severe weather.
“For me, I ended the weekend with two new things, a lot of new music to add to my playlists, and a cold,” said festival attendee Sam Rich. “After all these years I think everyone knows that if it doesn’t rain, you didn’t really experience FPSF.”
Having struggled with this issue in years past, the team behind Free Press was likely not surprised with the spontaneity of Texas weather and had no choice but to evacuate the grounds to ensure the safety of FPSF guests. Most unfortunate of all, the Sunday storms created enough of a hazard that organizers had to cancel the festival with less than half of the scheduled artists having taken the stage.
Though two days of evacuations and an ultimate cancellation put quite the rain cloud on Houston’s summer music showcase, fans who embraced the rain, braved the mud and waited it out were rewarded with stellar performances by artists like Cage the Elephant, G-Eazy, Grouplove and Bad Suns, among others.
Putting a Houston twist on the classic saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” festival goers on Saturday embraced the ever-changing Houston weather and went for a swim. With overpasses-turned waterfalls and grassy slopes-turned slip n’ slides, attendees turned Eleanor Tinsley Park into their own personal water park for an afternoon and made the most of a dreary situation. | Marshall Heins II/Cooglife
Unfortunately, many were left wanting more as several of the weekend’s most anticipated performances like Solange, Flume and Lorde were left unseen.
“I went into it hoping to hear a bunch of new bands and wrap up with The Shins and Flume on Sunday. I got my first wish Saturday and Sunday was obviously a disappointment; but FPSF handled it pretty well,” said festival attendee Tanner King. “Despite all that, raving in the rain to Cashmere Cat is one of my favorite festival experiences to date.”
Understanding the disappointment, festival organizers made the executive decision to refund guests for Sunday and even hosted a “pop-up” show at White Oak Music Hall late Sunday night with Children of Pop, Aminé and Portugal the Man — free of charge.
Take a look at some of this weekend’s performances.
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