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Final thoughts on Houston's In Bloom festival

We now have an old/new festival in the books. In Bloom took place Saturday and Sunday in Eleanor Tinsley Park more than two months earlier in the year than its ancestor, the Free Press Summer Festival, typically settled into the same confines. I still can't quite decide if In Bloom was the first of something or the tenth of something, which is problematic because judging its success or failure depends on one's expectations for the festival. Is it a new thing that needs time to grow? If so, there's potential. Is it an old thing on life support? If so, well ... difficult conversations may ensue about pulling the plug.

Here are a few broad stroke thoughts about the event.

1. The name: In Bloom was a curious handle for the event, a reference to a two-plus-decades-old Nirvana song about boorish dabblers who latch on to musical trends.
"He's the one who likes all our pretty songs," it goes. "And he likes to sing along. And he likes to shoot his gun. But he don't know what it means, don't know what it means when I say, 'He's the one who likes all our pretty songs.' "
Festivals are by nature an enormous petri dish of groupthink, whether the draw is an EDM act for the kids or a Baby Boomer totem. They're the Golden Corral of concerts. If you like steak, they want you to have ALL THE STEAK. Those who prefer fish will not be denied. Also, there's a chocolate fountain. You pay a bloated but fair cost, and you get a lot. Occasionally you have to pick up a second fork because the first one is gross.
A festival would have to be fairly combative to live up to "In Bloom," the song. This was not a combative festival. It toggled between party-centric hip-hop and tenured rock 'n' roll, which is to say safe rock 'n' roll. I hate to nitpick, but the four stages were Flora, Fauna, Ostara and, um, Bud Light. Which tells me the four stages could just as easily have been Taco Bell, Doritos, Aquafina and Bud Light, but only one company ponied up. Dilly dilly.


2. The lineup: Though four stages was about half of what the peak FPSF offered, the reduced stage footprint was something of a relief. The organizers walked a razor's edge with scheduling, especially between the Flora and Fauna stages, which were kissing cousins a few hundred yards from each other. They pulled it off admirably. But that's just scheduling logistics. Did people really actually CARE about the lineup? I'll get to attendance in a moment. Among my minor sample group of friends, there wasn't a single one who willingly purchased tickets for the event. Beck fans I knew would rather have paid $75 to NOT see him at a festival. Still the headliners were good, safe choices. Yet they were all large-scale theater acts: Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus. Even a late afternoon slot for a successful indie rock band like Grizzly Bear pulled only around 2,000 people. Which is fine, but Eleanor Tinsley offers a lot of turf for a modest festival. The hip-hop sets generated bigger crowds and more fervor, but they were also dappled with nostalgia for WAY back in the earlier aughts: Ying Yang Twins, T-Pain.


3. Attendance: A guy working security said his detail was told to expect 8,000. I didn't have a clicker-counter device, and festivals are often protective of information about paid attendance. I think In Bloom may have pulled a few thousand more than that. But the bowl along the bayou in the park never came close to capacity, lines never really formed at the gates, and Allen Parkway was a clear passageway from stage to stage all day, both days. If this sounds like a criticism, it's not. Peak FPSF was a logistical nightmare to navigate. I can't speak to the financial risk/reward of these events because I've never been involved with the up-front costs. That said, I know they're not cheap to produce. Maybe the scaled back festival is profitable. I suppose we'll know when/if In Bloom 2 gets announced. But the festival will have a dubious undertaking if it pulled fewer attendees than your average Jimmy Buffett gig.
3a. Attire: Basketball jerseys are to the young festival-goer what Hawaiian-print shirts are to Parrotheads and tie-dyed shirts are to Deadheads. Hate the idea of being a chemically-impaired walking cliche like the chemically-impaired walking cliches of generations past? Mix it up before it's too late. You have the rest of your life to conform. No need to rush into it.


4. Tone: I was intrigued to see so many In Bloom shirts on attendees, which made me think many concert-goers viewed the festival as a new thing and not a rebrand. And that filled me with some form of hope. That said, I don't have much else to say here. A festival identity can take a while to form. I'm not sure what this one is yet. Other observations: The festival isn't responsible for the presence of a mammoth Houston Fire Department vehicle with "mass casualty evacuation ambulance" written on the side; America can take credit for that. (Thanks, America!) The event had little tents buried off the beaten path for various progressive causes, yet uttered nary a peep about the presence of headliner Queens of the Stone Age, which had a ghastly Me Too moment just days before the fest's lineup was announced. Festivals have changed: some have gone belly up, others trudge ahead. But they no longer seem like a money-printing operation as they were a decade ago. How cultural changes affect this fest, we'll see. But the mass package tour likely became ubiquitous because it delivered a mass audience.


5. Environment/climate: A breeze flickered around the festival grounds all day Saturday, which was pleasant. Sunday was sunnier with less relief. Still, peak sticky heat Sunday was mild compared to the stormiest and steamiest FPSF events of years past. That said, the pollen was aggressive, especially under the trees by the stages on the west side. But hey, it's Houston: pick your poison. I couldn't complain. But I complained anyway.

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