Since the rise and fall of Houston festivals Free Press Summer Fest and Day For Night in the 2010s (to say nothing of Astroworld), the United States’s fourth largest city has had relatively few modern mega music festivals. With nearly 2.3 million residents, Houston has a booming arts and music scenes, but little has existed festival-wise to draw tourists, show off local musicians and attract stars like Kendrick Lamar, who played Day For Night, and Jack White, who played Free Press. This year, the inaugural We Are One Music + Arts Festival will try its hand at filling that void. Overall, its pitch isn’t that different from that of Day For Night and Free Press. We Are One will have a similar mix of EDM, rap and hip-hop, even enlisting the same “Welcome to Houston” group of Houston rappers with Paul Wall, Slim Thug and a few others that played Free Press. But We Are One hopes to be more community- and arts-oriented. It was founded by Houstonians, works with local community organizations like The Montrose Center and has a lineup of socially minded local artists who will paint murals during the festival. It also requires ticket holders to be at least 18 years old. We Are One Fest was rescheduled the first time in early 2022, moving from May of that year to November and forcing a shuffle of the lineup. Acts like Grimes, Duck Sauce, Lupe Fiasco and Japanese Breakfast left the ticket and were replaced by headliners Alison Wonderland, DaBaby, Tiësto, Martin Garrix and Gucci Mane. It was postponed again before its November debut and is now expected to happen in May 2023.
The Specs
- Unknown how many will be there, but over 100,000 attended Free Press Summer Fest.
- Tickets info is not yet available.
