Oh Shit!   

Sure enough you’ve seen the news about a Dababy show being canceled down the road in NoLa due to low ticket sales. Dababy is also one of the soon to be headliners of the WAO festival in downtown Houston. Does this spell trouble to WAO festival after the rescheduling earlier this year? Will WAO dodge the hurricane season in Houston? Rolling off the back of Halloween and in to Thanksgiving weekend, its going to be interesting to watch what develops. Some fans that bought tickets for the first lineup are disappointed with the new line up. with one user on Instagram stating “Da Baby is super homophobic, so homophonic that ACL dropped him. Houston ppl deserve better. This lineup is MID, after we waited MONTHS. and you guys are deleting comments talking about how you won’t give refunds. This is crazy lmaooo”. Someone else posting, “W for DaBaby and Chief Keef… otherwise wtf is this? Why drop CL and Japanese Breakfast? Smh”. Arguably mixed feelings about this new line up.   

Its starting to seem like the spring time We Are One music and arts fest isn’t the same as the fall We Are One music and arts fest. What use to be a “Harmony Music Events presents” has turned into a “Celsius, Bud Light, Michelob, Air, Envy, Alto, Hidden Valley, Municipal Goods’ presents. Removing the diverse line up, Dollhouse Drag Brunch, and art, only to be replaced by sponsors. Interestingly enough they have also changed their “About” section. With all these changes it seems like a completely different festival. Ticket holders seem to be stuck with the refund policy that only states “Refunds will not be issued unless there is full cancellation of the event.”. What was painted as a home grown festival from Houstonians has quickly turned in to another cookie-cutter, cash grab by Anheuser-Busch and friends.   

Looking back at an earlier article, “Music Festivals In Houston“, many of these turn out in controversy and/or tragedy. It’s still early to know the fate of WeAreOne Festival, so I’ll leave you with this quote that gets thrown around often these days, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes”. 

*Clarification: any mentions of WAO Festival is in reference to the We Are One Festival in Houston, Texas and not WAO Festival in Italy*