Review: 1st Annual MeccaFest
In the midst of the chaos that is Howard Homecoming Weekend, was a new event by the name of MeccaFest. This is one of a few new festivals to debut this year and it is always nice to see something new emerge in the chocolate city. It allows to you to see the many different approaches used to try to bring the public the best experience possible. In this case, the Howard University alumni’s that produced the event were trying to recreate Howard’s Yardfest; which no longer host live performances.
The line up for the event included rapper Future, Elle Varner, Rae Sremmurd, Teyana Taylor, Jeremih and more. The event was scheduled to start at noon on this beautiful Friday in the nation’s capitol, however, the performances did not make way until around 4 p.m. Among the many opening acts was a girl group by the name of ‘Good Girl’, I was impressed. They have a little ways to go but the potential is definitely there. They are engaging, have a well-balanced show and good look to them. I would say that they were obviously a little uncomfortable in the tight space on the stage with band equipment and more than a handful of dancers but that can be worked on. Teyana Taylor put on a SHOW, best part of the entire show in my opinion. Of course, some wished that she was singing during the performance of her single ‘Maybe’ but the focus seemed to be the dance. However, she did have surprise appearances by Yo Gotti and label mate Pusha T that sent the crowd into an uproar. Another surprise during the festival included DC’s own, Wale and Memphis bred, Snootie Wild. Wale performed a few of his hits and they both joined Jeremih on stage for a little while as well.
Overall, I would like to say that I had a wonderful time covering this event but in this particular instance, that was not the case. You had artist that did not show or just plain refused to perform because people who had no purpose of being on the stage did not want to get off.There were security teams that did nothing about the crowd that took over restricted areas so that they could get near the acts on stage. Also, not informing the crowd that an artist that they came to see was not performing. Instead, you had the DJ continue to spin records while hosts jumped around the stage keeping the crowd preoccupied and when the audience finally realized that things were being packed up on the stage; you cut the lights off.
I could go on and on but hopefully next year they learn from the mistakes and build from there. Check out a few performances below.
