To no surprise, Day For Night has received significant attention and praise for its musical lineup at this years’ installation of the music and art festival. From headliners down to the bottom of the lineup, this year’s event played host to three days of powerful, innovative and inspiring artists across four stages — two of which were indoors, the remaining two outside.
Starting the weekend off on Friday night were rap and funk extraordinaires, Earl Sweatshirt and Kaytranada. Wrapping up the intimate, separately ticketed evening of inspiring talks and creative musicians, these two music moguls curated nearly three hours of non-stop soundscapes that shook Post HTX to its core. Despite being advertised and ticketed apart from the “two-day” festival portion of the weekend, fans packed into to the dilapidated building to witness these artists perform into the early hours of Saturday morning. Earl Sweatshirt took the stage around 11:20 p.m while Kaytranada followed thereafter from 12:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.
The following day, fans packed into the festival grounds early to see local artists Deep Cuts followed by Of Montreal and Princess Nokia on the two outdoor stages. Plagued by cloudy skies and a less than ideal forecast for the evening, event coordinators began to reorganize the evening’s outdoor sets in order to beat the rain as much as possible. Rather than end at 11:00 p.m. as scheduled, the afternoon and evening performances were all pushed up to end at 10:00 p.m., when the rain was predicted to wreak havoc on the festivities. Notable among the afternoon performances were Lil B’s numerous references to the crowd as “Dallas” (an unfortunate mistake to make while performing in Houston), Cardi B’s 15 minute set following a near hour delay from the 6:00 p.m. time slot, and Cashmere Cat’s transitioning set from dry skies to the impending downpour.
Just as the rain began to fall, Nine Inch Nails, and soon thereafter Tyler, The Creator, took to the outdoor stages and mesmerized fans with a power hour of music before the rain became so bad that the performances had to be cut. Despite the increasing severity of the weather throughout both sets, however, fans, both prepared and unprepared for the rain, braved the elements with umbrellas in hand, rain jackets zipped up or simply with the clothes on their back, embracing the rain as an added experiential element to the evening performances.
Closing out the evening was Jamie xx’s, Berlin-inspired deep house set from 12:20 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Despite having been on their feet all day, attendees of Jamie xx’s set were more than awake and lively as they shuffled around the massive dance floor, embracing the high of mental exhaustion to escape their minds and focus solely on the music.
As the doors opened on Sunday, fans enjoyed performances (rain-free) by Kimbra, The Album Leaf and hypnotic DJ, Rezz.
Most anticipated of all, however, was the return of Solange to her hometown of Houston for an awe-inspiring, soulful performance unlike any others throughout the entire weekend. Working with the TSU band, discussing the beauty that has been cultivated in the third ward and referencing iconic Houston restaurants like Frenchy’s and Ninfa’s, Solange showed love to the city that shaped her and made sure fans knew how fortunate they were to be a part of such an incredible festival in town.
Concluding the outdoor music for the Sunday, and the entirety of the festival, were electronic duo Justice and Texas native, St. Vincent. Both performances occurred with no weather interferences and concluded early enough to send those with an early curfew home by 10:00 p.m.
For those brave enough to return to work Monday morning fighting hangovers and exhaustion and those lucky enough to have a late start or even Monday off, Thom Yorke’s 12:20 a.m. set inside the post office was well worth the wait. His experimental sounds, forward thinking-production and infamous dance moves captivated the audience for a lengthy hour and a half set that concluding just before 2:00 a.m.
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