Summer Fest back — for now
Scaled-back lineup may signal beginning of the end for event
Following a poorly received, rain-soaked 2016 event, the Free Press Summer Fest music festival trudges into its ninth year with headliners Lorde, G-Eazy, Flume and Cage the Elephant.
The lineup for the June 3-4 festival at Eleanor Tinsley Park marks a step backward for an event previously known for expansion.
That the lineup was announced Wednesday with so little fanfare is a sign the event may be winding toward a permanent end. And that two of its top performers — G-Eazy and Tov Lo — played FPSF just two years ago suggests a general lack of interest and care in the planning.
Further, the lineup of around 50 performers is greatly scaled back from years past — nearly a third smaller than even last year’s. Ticket prices for the two-day event, though, remain in the $150 range.
The emergence of the new electronic-centric Middle Lands Festival — created by the folks who put on the Austin City Limits Festival and set for May on the grounds of the Texas Renaissance Festival — led to speculation that FPSF might be phased out entirely this year. Such is not the case, though clearly FPSF is undergoing noticeable attrition.
Other performers for this year’s fest include Houstonborn Solange, the Shins, Tove Lo, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Carnage, Post Malone, Jon Bellion, Big K.R.I.T., Portugal The Man and Charlie XCX.
FPSF launched in 2009 at Eleanor Tinsley Park. Originally a modest festival with headliners like Explosions in the Sky and Broken Social Scene, FPSF grew out of Free Press Houston’s successful block parties. The festival filled a void in the city and in subsequent years drew increasing crowds in the tens of thousands.
The growing pains were slow to surface, starting with the 2015 booking of R&B singer R. Kelly, who years earlier had been accused of some ghastly sex crimes. As Free Press Houston took on additional partners to increase the size of the festival, the vibe changed. The booking of Kelly felt like the work of outsiders and antithetical to the work of a proudly independent underground, alternative politics/ art/entertainment media organization.
Months later, Free Press Houston sold the majority interest in FPSF to C3 Media, which puts on festivals like Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.
Weather permitting, FPSF 2017 will be back in Eleanor Tinsley Park. Storms pushed it to the parking lots around NRG Stadium last year. But for the first time in a long time, post-festival repairs to the park’s green hills might not be as dire. It’s difficult to imagine the same sized crowd passing through for this year’s event.