Friday foreshadowed what was imminent Sunday.
Despite clear skies and temperatures in the 70s, deep, spongy mud scattered festival grounds before the headlining acts set foot on stage at Voodoo Music and Arts Experience on Oct 30. Some festival staff spent their evening directing crowds around puddles that were comparable in size to the surrounding canals near City Park.
The weather wasn’t yet destructive enough to hinder the lineup.
Modest Mouse, Girl Talk and Florence and the Machine, among others, provided a great atmosphere to kick off the weekend.
Modest Mouse rocked the house with a setlist comprised of its greatest hits. Singer Isaac Brock even performed a guitar solo with his mouth.
Girl Talk proved he could compete with other electronic artists on the Friday night lineup, like Alesso and Jack U.
Huge, blow-up limbs were positioned in each corner of the stage, and his DJ table was outfitted to look like a basketball. The over-sized, blow-up hands that framed the stage mimicked that of Girl Talk’s audience, who was turnt for his mash ups.
Girl Talk’s energy was contagious. He vibrated along with the beats that were pulsing through the speakers.
He catered his set list to the festival — mashing up other artists on the lineup like Chance the Rapper, cutting up Halloween classics like Monster Mash and Thriller and sneaking in some current popular hits like Hotline Bling, All Day and Truffle Butter to hype up the crowd.
Girl Talk was spirited for Halloween. He wore a Hannibal Lecter costume, which eventually came off as he stripped down to sweatpants to better facilitate his raging.
Florence Welch was also feeling the spirit for her performance. Her usual makeup-free face was painted to look like a Sugar Skull.
She was barefoot, dancing and running across the stage. She told fans to kiss each other, love each other and take off something and wave it around like a flag “because you have been released.”
Despite the energetic performances of Friday, the crowds seemed significantly smaller than the previous year, which hailed acts like Outkast and Zedd.
Saturday’s crowds diminished even more as the rain began. Some fans took solace in the Pepsi Dome, which offered an immersive art experience and protection from weather conditions.
Santigold’s performance invited festival goers to stay. Her bass-centric songs warmed up the crowd, distracting them from the overt awareness of being soaking wet.
Festival attendees finished off their night with sets from Ozzy Osbourne, who adequately set the mood for Halloween, and Steve Angello.
Voodoo ticketholders woke up to disappointing news Sunday, when they discovered the rest festival was cancelled due to rain and flash flood warnings.
Perhaps Voodoo organizers feared being in the position of TomorrowWorld’s disastrous public relations fiasco that happened just a month ago, where fans were stranded and otherwise distraught from the festival’s lack of preparation for inclement weather.
However, those who stayed in New Orleans were further disappointed to see that the rain wasn’t all that bad. Though, Voodoo tweeted photos from its account showing the flooding in City Park.
Chance the Rapper and Deadmau5, who were scheduled to perform today, teased that they would find a place to play indoors.
The Willow, a bar located in Uptown New Orleans, offered these musicians a place to play, but nothing came of it.
However, Eric Prydz is scheduled to perform at The Metro, and Unicorn Fukr and Quickie Mart were scheduled to play at the Dragon’s Den Sunday night.