Day For Night

Day For Night was Houston’s first immersive light and sound festival, and the organizers did a fantastic job planning and executing its inaugural year in 2015.
Yes, daily and weekend passes were far more pricy than FSP and other summer and fall music fests, but as opposed to FPSF, which I’ve gone almost every year since its inception in 2009, Day For Night wasn’t in the thick of 100-​degree weather; there weren’t droves of people shuffling from stage to stage like cattle; and the demographic wasn’t your typical mobs of wasted 20-​something-​year olds.
With clear skies and the beautiful Downtown Houston skyline as its backdrop, Day For Night took place on John Deal Co’s Spring and Silver Street properties. The main stage area was carpeted — yes, instead of standing on cement or grass, there was carpet. Many took it upon themselves to sit, lay and enjoy the show as if they were watching it from their own living room. Food vendors were top notch, I mean, my group and I were able to get burgers from Underbelly. There were many food trucks on hand as well, complimentary water stations … but of course, we were all there for the music and light installations.
Favorite performance of the 2-​day festival was without a doubt NEW ORDER. I took my oldest sis to the show because I have the fondest memories dancing to New Order’s hits in her bright pink bedroom. I think I was in kindergarten… They did an outstanding performance and I will never forget that moment. :)
Other performers included Sunday night’s headliner Kendrick Lamar (bomb ass), Dillon Francis and Dan Deacon. I didn’t get a chance to see Philip Glass Ensemble on Saturday, but I saw plenty of clips from my fanboy friends.
Now I don’t know much about light instillation artists, other than some local and international works of James Turrell, but the art brought in was though provoking … if not visually stimulating. There were a TON of people using the pieces as the perfect Instagram photo opp, so if you didn’t attend, you probably saw posts all over your feed.
Looking forward to its return in 2016.

Scored free tix with Unilocal!Largely a college & 20’s-early 30’s crowd. Don’t bring kids! Lots of people smoking vaporizers… among others…
There were three main stages. The largest was an outdoors concert venue with a spectacular view of Houston downtown. Lots of DJ’ing, interpretive music, and screamo. Many art installations were tucked in little nooks and corners of the warehouse building. There were a few larger displays, some which you had to wait in line for. Light displays were accompanied by other worldly epic music. I think the experience would be «mind-​blowing» if you were drunk… and high…
There weren’t many maps and much direction/​staff around… but as it was a relatively small place, it was fun to explore the uncharted lands. Plenty of food trucks, porta potty’s, and drink stands around. Some long lines for the trucks though. The website advertised free water refills for those who brought their own Camelbaks/​waterbottles, but I’ve heard people couldn’t find the water? For parking, with some searching and a bit of walking, you can find free street parking. I wouldn’t pay $ 20 parking.
I feel the almost $ 200 price for a two-​day pass was way too much for people to buy blindly for a first time festival. ~$ 100/​day is also really expensive (esp for college kids). I think a lot of people were given free tickets one way or another… It wasn’t even unlimited entry. You could only enter twice a day, so beware. Programming was smart in putting Kendrick Lamar at the very end of the festival to retain people to stay ’til then. They had some really big headline acts, so I’d probably only attend for those music acts… but definitely not just for the lights.

This festival definitely has potential and room to grow. We went on the second day to check out Kendrick Lamar (K.Dot) and this is definitely a well planned out festival. Computational art, food trucks, 3 stages with various artist performing makes for something big. As I was walking past Com Truise spinning, the beat caught me and my white sneakers took over!
Set outside of Silver street studios with plenty of room to breathe and lucky that the weather was perfect, this is really a cool festival. I got to keep a star because of the attempt to make people pay almost $ 200 for both days at first and then finally breaking it down so you can choose one day if you want. The price is kind of steep, even for the one day pass, especially being this is its first year and that was a big problem, they overshoot it, way too soon! I’m interested in seeing who will perform next year and how it will turn out.
«Never trust a $$$$$ with cornrows»

This was a great 2-​day art and music festival with alot of everything a young person could want. Lots of dj’s, bands, art installations, food trucks, port a pottys, beautiful people. Brought to you by the same people as FPSF. Don’t be stupid and pay for the $ 40 or even the $ 20 parking, just take 5 more minutes to drive around and find free street parking.