Houston needs a Free Press Summer Fest. Houston deserves a Free Press Summer Fest.

Sure, at its most basic event description, FPSF is a really, really big concert. Myriad bands playing on hella stages, thousands upon thousands in attendance, sound coming from everywhere, all of that. And that’s not necessarily an inaccurate description. Certainly all of those elements will be there in force, and be madly entertaining at that. But it can be so much more, mean so much more to our city than that cursory view of the event would allow.

I suppose I don’t have to spell out the fact that I am thrilled to be attending FPSF. As a music lover, it hits me right in my weak spot – a lot of bands I like and have never seen live, and a whole lot more acts I’ve never had the pleasure of having even heard of. As a social media junkie, it promises to be one of the biggest events of the year, the kind of event you’ll immediately regret missing if you do. And as a professional blogger, I love having the opportunity to talk to so many interesting artists and promoters and fellow members of the press. I can scarcely narrow down exactly what would be the single biggest draw for me at this show.

And, of course, that means I’m totally going to try and narrow down just that.

#5. Vendors

I’m exceptionally gifted when it comes to spending money. Apparently, I’m not the only Houstonian with that knack.

According to the FPSF website, over $1,000,000 – no typo, one million freakin’ dollars – was spent by festival goers last year. That’s a lot of skrilla. And you can bet that some of the city’s best in just about everything will be doing anything they can to grab your attention (and maybe just a little bit of your wallet) while you roam the festival grounds.

You’ll be able to buy stuff. You’ll have tons of merchandise. Art pieces. Souvenirs. Food. Drink. More drinks (it is the Houston June, after all). And all of it will be had under the summer sky, surrounded by so many cultures and backgrounds. It’ll definitely lead to a sensory overload, but that’s the kind of OD I can get behind.

#4. Art & Artists

FPSF is, at heart, a music festival. That’s definitely the selling point, what brings in the bulk of attendees. But definitely just as important if not as prominent is the vast array of breathtaking and often profound pieces from some of our city’s best minds. Make no mistake, Free Press Summer Fest has an agenda, an underlying objective to bring local talent, be it audio or visual, out into a spotlight with an audience bigger than any gallery or studio could hold.

Houston, by virtue of the tremendous melting pot of cultures that has taken root and grown over generations, has an incredibly rich and diverse pool of artistic talent. It’s something that often gets overlooked, alarmingly so by the very citizens sharing the city. FPSF is taking a very proactive role in gathering the eyes and hearts of the city’s masses, and placing some of that eager and festive attention towards the beauty behind the people who call Houston home. It’s a noble goal, and I can’t wait to be a part of it.

#3. Local Talent

In the relatively short time that MyHoustonLife has existed in its current form, the burgeoning music scene of the bayou city has already become a major focus for our editorial team and contributors. It’s not surprising that a city as large as ours should have homegrown bands trying to make it big. What is surprising is just underrated and underrepresented our local acts have gone for so long.

Not anymore.

There’s a change in the air, a shift in our city’s mindset, that is latching on to our city’s rich underground music scene and bringing it to the national front. Houston has already become a necessary part of every hip hop artist’s career path, from chart toppers like Drake to criminally underrated masters like born and raised Houstonian Z-Ro. But it’s only grown wider from there, with the city’s indie music scene swelling up in a way nobody could have predicted years ago. The city is expanding its audio horizons, and we all benefit from that. FPSF can become a milestone for the national music scene as a whole, a launching point for some of tomorrow’s most influential performers. And that’s something I absolutely have to see for myself.

#2. National Recognition

Some would argue that this point is largely unnecessary, that the need for national media attention or spotlight is overrated. And, sure, they may be right. As long as we, the people of the city we love so much know what FPSF is all about, who cares about the rest of the country, right?

But how many of you out there make a yearly road trip to Austin for the Austin City Limits festival held in the fall? I already have my ticket, that’s for sure. How many of you fly to Lollapalooza? Bonnaroo? Coachella?

Here’s the thing about being a major music festival; it focuses and invites some of the most amazing and memorable moments in music history. I wasn’t alive when Jimi Hendrix played Woodstock, but the images, the performance,  have become so iconic that I instantly recognize them. Remember Jay-Z getting all of the Glastonbury concert goers to sing Oasis’s “Wonderwall” in unison? Heck, earlier this year Coachella made major headlines when it used future tech to bring Tupac back from the dead for a performance we’re still talking about months later.

Free Press Summer Fest has the potential and the focus to become one of the nation’s landmark music events of the year. It has the size to bring about the world’s biggest chart toppers while simultaneously homing in  some of the best bands you’ve never heard of. That’s the mark of not only a big music festival, but an important music festival.

#1. MHL’s Coverage of FPSF

Alright, so this one is a little selfish on my part, but it is my list, so stick with me for a second.

MyHoustonLife has maintained its goal of talking about and highlighting the very best things that our beloved city has to offer. We live for this stuff, going out and about and being witness to happenings large and small, and letting everybody in our city know about it. “Let us show you around our town”, we say. Well, happenings simply don’t get much bigger than FPSF in our city, so you can rest assured knowing that we’ll be doing our best to provide you with an inside view to one of the most exciting things to happen to HTX in recent memory.

And most exciting for me as Senior Editor and writer for the site is the innovative ways we plan to bring you into Free Press Summer Fest with us.

You might already have a few expectations, and you’re probably dead on with those. You can expect write ups about the festivities, detailing memorable performances around the show, as well as coverage about some of the most interesting art and artists on the festival grounds. You can expect to see tons of photography from the staff that has made us all of us here at MHL headquarters so very proud in such a short time. We’ve got interviews coming your way from some of the bands we’re most excited to see at the show, like MHL Houstunes favorites The Tontons, Austin’s breakout act Electric Touch, and many, many more people you won’t want to miss. And most importantly, you can expect to know all about this LIVE, as we plan to run our very first continuous Live Blog for both days of FPSF, bringing you in for all the moment-to-moment events and thoughts and shenanigans we have at any given moment. You can expect us to have special guests, instant photos, and all of the insights you’d expect from the MHL team as they happen.

I can’t wait to see it. And I really hope you’ll join us, if only to see why we’re so in love with Free Press Summer Fest.

Does this all sound exciting? You can still catch it live, in person! Tickets are still available for purchase here.

We hope to see you all on the festival grounds, or joining us in the Live Blog comments section. Enjoy the show!

Don’t miss out MyHoustonLife’s coverage of Free Press Summer Fest! Be sure to check the front page of MyHoustonLife.com throughout both days of the show to keep up to date on all the great things we’ll be seeing and hearing. And make sure you’re following @MyHoustonLife on Twitter as well as Liking us on Facebook to keep your social feeds updated about Free Press Summer Fest!