Kendrick Lamar Performs

Music Festival is sheer madness as Kendrick Lamar draws massive crowd

Kendrick Lamar gave Houston just a few days to prepare for his arrival, but that didn’t seem to stop what seemed like just about everyone in town from making their way to Discovery Green on Saturday night for a free concert at the March Madness Music Festival.

I spoke to a number of fans on the way to the three-day live music attraction that accompanies the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament, and the only thing anyone seemed to care about was the fact that arguably the most popular rapper on the planet was going to be playing live downtown.

You can imagine the strain this put the scene.

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When I heard earlier this week that Lamar would be headlining, I knew that I wanted to go but there was no way I was using my car to get downtown for this, ahem, madness. I decided to take METRO up on its weekend NCAA bus pass option. Good idea in theory, except for one glaring oversight on my part — this is a FREE music festival, downtown and I was at the mercy of the bus.

The first bus that neared my stop on Westheimer and Hazard passed me up because they were completely full.

As this happened, a helpful kid employed by a new Montrose apartment complex to spin an advertisement sign near my bus stop told me that the buses have looked like that all day long. While I waited hopefully for the next bus to take me downtown, me and the kid started talking about the music he listens to while he spins those advertisement signs. “Oh you know, good beats. Loud things. Run the Jewels, Kendrick Lamar, that kinda stuff.”

I asked him if he knew that Lamar was playing for free downtown in a few hours. “Yep,” he replied, “that’s why I’m quitting early today. Going to cash my check and head down there.”

My bus came shortly afterward, and I was lucky to find standing room on this one.

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Discovery Green reached capacity around 4 pm, a full three hours before Lamar was set to take the stage. (Fire marshals reopened the gates later, but closed them again before Lamar's performance.)

Luckily I was able to make it into the grounds and scope out the scene before Lamar’s set. A crowd near the main stage was already forming during the Jason Derulo and Twenty One Pilots performances, but during the day there was still plenty of room to walk around and check out what the festival had to offer.

Food trucks such as The Waffle Bus, Koagie Hots, and The Burger Joint were doing a brisk business, alog with such attractions as a promotional area with photo booths, a mechanical bull and free Coca-Cola, and of course the ferris wheel that has become an icon of the annual March Madness Music Festival.

By the time Lamar and his band took the stage after the end of Villanova's rout of Oklahoma was showing on the big screens, there was no room to move except vertically, and the funky energy Lamar’s band brought to back up these songs made that easy.

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Lamar ran through favorites from albums good kid, m.A.A.d. city (sic) and last year’s Grammy-award winning To Pimp A Butterfly, inciting the crowd to keep their hands up and participate. A couple of lucky fans were asked on stage to rap words to “m.A.A.d city,” a trademark of Lamar shows. “He’s doing my job for me!,” Lamar quipped as one of these fans, who proudly announced his name as David, killed it on stage.

If you were lucky enough to make it down to Discovery Green with me, I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as I did. Kendrick Lamar's performance might just go down in history as one of downtown Houston’s biggest moments.

If you missed the action today, remember that there is plenty more to come Sunday at Discovery Green as Aloe Blacc, Flo Rida, Pitbull and Maroon 5 are set to perform tomorrow starting at 3 pm.

You'd better get there early.

Earlier in the day things were calmer as a face painter worked her magic.

Kendrick Lamar March Madness Music Festival crowd face painting

Photo by Killy

Earlier in the day things were calmer as a face painter worked her magic.

music downtown concerts

Movie Review

Margot Robbie ignites provocative new take on Wuthering Heights

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights.

Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights is one of those classic books assigned in high school English classes, and it has received a number of film adaptations over the years — each of which differ in numerous ways from the source material. Purists won’t receive any reprieve from Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation, with a title that is stylized as "Wuthering Heights” for good reason.

Cathy (played as an adult by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) have known each other their entire lives, with Cathy’s alcoholic and inveterate gambler father (Martin Clunes) taking in Heathcliff on a whim when he was a boy. The two bond as they grow up together, although Cathy always seems to have an eye on moving up in society from their relatively impoverished lifestyle.

Cathy finally gets her wish when the rich Linton familyled by Edgar (Shazad Latif), moves in down the road, Despite discovering she has feelings for the now grown-up Heathcliff, Cathy sees Edgar as her way out and agrees to marry him. A scorned Heathcliff flees, returning years later as mysteriously wealthy. His reappearance ignites something in Cathy’s soul, and the two engage in a perhaps unwise affair.

Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) infuses the dusty material with an energy that’s not typically present in stories set in this particular time and place. Aside from the occasional Charli XCX song (the singer created a whole concept album for the film), the film looks and feels like a period piece, albeit one that doesn’t get bogged down in the drudgery that can sometimes come from films set in the distant past.

Much of that has to do with the lust the filmmaker puts into the story. Even if you’re not familiar with Brontë’s book, you can rest assured that Fennell has strayed far from the text, giving Cathy and Heathcliff thoughts and actions unthinkable in the 19th century. Fennell plays with expectations by opening the film with audio featuring creaking noises and a man grunting, conjuring up a situation far different than what is actually happening, and she also makes liberal use of rain, sweat, and tears to make the actors enticing.

What she can’t do, however, is make the two lead characters compelling. Cathy is a striver who never seems to know what she wants out of life, and Heathcliff goes from a bore to a brute over the course of the film, with no clear indication that he likes anybody, much less Cathy. Anyone expecting some kind of grand romance will be disappointed as Fennell is much more interested in making the film weird, like having the walls of Cathy’s room look like her skin, complete with freckles.

Robbie and Elordi do well enough with the material, and it’s clear that both of them are committed to bringing Fennell’s vision to life. Their styles tend to balance each other out, and if the story had been committed to their characters’ relationship, they might be lauded for their chemistry. In the end, though, the supporting actors feel more interesting, including ones played by Hong Chau, Alison Miller, and Clunes.

This version of Wuthering Heights should never be construed as an alternative to reading the book for any high schoolers out there. While Fennell makes the film interesting with her technical filmmaking choices, the story never finds its footing as it fails to sell the one thing that it seems to promise.

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Wuthering Heights opens in theaters on February 13.

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