The heat was intense, reaching 88 degrees at 60% humidity at the day’s peak. Three combination water and medic tents throughout the grounds kept most fans safe and hydrated (including water bottles available at the multiple bar areas) but there were still eight cases of fainting festival-goers throughout the day with two confirmed seizures.
The heat also caused major sound issues before sundown, angering fans particularly during Shaboozey’s set. The country/rap crossover sensation was one of the most anticipated daytime performance slots for Day One, and drew a large crowd to the festival main stage. But due to overheating of consoles in the sound booth and DJ gear on stage, Shaboozey could barely make it through a song without the sound cutting out. After 4 incomplete songs, the artist stormed offstage in a huff. Fans booed and chanted his name in the hopes that he’d come back out, but due to the technical difficulties, Shaboozey did not return to finish his set.
Almost every performer on the main stage addressed the heat at some point. During Amaarae’s standout set backed by a full band, she exclaimed, “Dallas it’s hot! And I’m from Ghana, but [the heat] is different here! It’s different, it’s different!”
Three 6 Mafia’s DJ Paul joked that the sweat marks on his baby-pink t shirt began to resemble the shape of Texas and Mexico, and his counterpart Juicy J admitted that a silver pleather shirt and pants set was a poorly planned fashion choice on his part.
Atlanta trap icon, Gucci Mane, was the only performer unphased by the temperature in a light southern-summer appropriate matching shorts set. Classics from his catalog like, “Lemonade,” “Trap House 3” and “Go Head” got the crowd really moving for the first time all day. And for “Freaky Gurl,” Gucci brought out his model wife Keyshia Ka'Oir to dance her ass off as the audience sang along to every word.
The highlight of the day was an absolutely electrifying set from Dru Hill. The '90s R&B group is celebrating 25 years together, with lead vocalist Sisqó referencing on stage that the quarter-century milestone is an eligibility qualification for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It will be interesting to see if the group makes a serious campaign for the honor in 2025.
There were still sound difficulties that caused Dru Hill’s mics to cut in and out intermittently, but nowhere near as bad as during Shaboozey’s set. “Some of y'all are looking at us like ‘What the fuck are you doing?” joked Sisqó, “It’s called singing! The mics are ON!”
High points of Dru Hill’s set included celebrations of returning original lineup members Scola and Jazz, the latter of which took the stage for a stunning rendition of “Never Make a Promise.” The group’s six members are all still boasting the singing chops that made them famous in the '90s, their voices seemingly untouched by time. So if you have the chance to see them live, you don’t want to miss such a satisfying dose of nostalgia.
Around 4 p.m. the number of patrons on the festival grounds increased exponentially, an obvious indicator that the heat had kept many ticket holders from braving daytime performances. But around dusk, the otherwise languid crowd began to grow lively and animated for Memphis rapper Key Glock.
His set signaled a ramp-up of production values with large-scale LED lighting features and a slew of backup dancers. The second half of his performance presented a slide show tribute to Young Dolph, slain Memphis rapper and cousin of Key Glock. It was a fitting tribute.
After a 30-minute wait, headliner Summer Walker enraptured fans with her set. On a stage adorned with candelabra and ethereal backup dancers in glittering rhinestone nude-illusion bodysuits, Walker dripped sultry elegance from head-to-toe. Without the punishing sun to reckon with, sound engineers produced the highest quality audio of the day for the R&B songstress and her powerhouse backing band.
Touring guitarist Elijah Whittingham was an absolute revelation on the stage as his scaling solos soared over the crowd and illuminated the night. The audience sang along in an ocean of cooing voices to every word of Walker’s grown and sexy ballads. She looked incredible over the course of multiple costume changes in various shades of pale blue, and sounded even better.
While serenading the crowd with the erotic “Tonight,” dollar bills cascaded over Walker as she lounged on a slowly rotating pedestal, spreading her legs as wide as the vast night sky. It was an impassioned love letter to strippers and a seductive beckoning to the bedroom for audience members on the way home.
Before the end of her set, Walker brought out Dallas-based rapper 4Batz (a recent addition to Drake's OVO Sound record label) as a special guest, who thanked her by gifting the singer with a new Louis Vuitton handbag on stage. Though day one of TwoGether Land was not without its fumbles, Summer Walker made sure the night closed out with a gorgeous finish for festival-goers.
If Day One of TwoGether Land in Dallas’ Fair Park started off rocky, then the second day proved to be a bumpy road all the way through. An outdoor festival in late May is an ambitious feat for Texas weather and the fact that promoters managed to pull it off is an accomplishment in itself.
After overnight storms, the festival grounds opened just under two hours late on Sunday after wind sent various tents and stage set-ups tumbling around. For that reason, and temperatures rising ten degrees higher than the day before, morale was not high upon entering the festival grounds.
Logistical issues on Sunday posed major concerns to attendee’s safety. Security staff confirmed early in the day that emergency exits on each side of the festival’s main entrance had been fenced off at their outlet points due to issues with patrons using them to sneak in on Saturday. Though they were still marked as emergency exits inside the grounds, had festival-goers needed to utilize them on Sunday they would have found themselves trapped inside bolted security fences.
Fans braved even higher temperatures than the day prior for TwoGether Land festival's Sunday finish.
Elijah Smith
It’s great to see Fair Park being utilized for events like TwoGether Land, as it made for near-perfect festival grounds. Hopefully it will lead to more destination cultural events in Dallas going forward. But the security risks like Sunday’s must be resolved. Festival workers we spoke to attributed the issues to the fact that four different private security contractors had been hired to patrol and coordinate the grounds, but communication between the separate staffs seemed non-existent.
In a poor attempt to catch up for lost timing caused by the delayed start, daytime performers found their sets substantially shortened on Sunday. R&B songstress Amerie and her fans suffered the most frustrating case of this when her time slot was cut off by production before she was able to end with her most popular song, “1 Thing,” the 2005 smash hit that’s still a dance floor staple nearly 20 years since its release.
Amerie begged for another mere minute and thirty seconds to perform her signature track, but her efforts were unsuccessful. She was able to get the first two bars of “1 Thing” off a capella in a last-ditch attempt to give her audience what they came for before being ushered off stage. Production’s poor attempt in to catch up on time turned out to be for nothing, as fans waited another 15 minutes for Mariah The Scientist to take the stage.
Amerie's set was cut short before she was able to perform the biggest hit of her career.
Elijah Smith
On the upside, Saturday’s audio issues on the main stage caused by overheating equipment were totally resolved on Sunday. Day Two saw stellar sound quality all day long, which is a very difficult accomplishment for outdoor festivals at any time of year. But performers and fans alike were still reckoning with the 97 degree heat.
Texas-based performers dominated the day time sets on Sunday. Bay City’s That Mexican OT whipped the crowd into a frenzy after walking out to Alice in Chains’ classic '90s radio-rock fixture, “Man in the Box,” taking audience requests throughout his set, and even leading a George Strait singalong halfway through. Dallas rap fans would do well not to miss the up-and-coming rapper’s future stops through the city.
The crowd momentum kept rolling with the next set, appropriately dubbed Dallas All-Stars. The lineup of local heroes from the '90s rap golden era to current day, curated by beloved radio personality Hollyhood Bay Bay, featured back-to-back performances from the likes of Tum Tum, Big Tuck, Mr. Lucci, Mr. Pookie, Dorrough, Prince Rick & Treal Lee, Yung Nation, Erica Banks and more. Hollyhood Bay Bay proved to promoters that nearly nothing plays better to Dallas fans than the city’s own pride and joy.
After strong sets from The Dream and Jeezy, the sun finally went down and Atlanta rapper Latto took the main stage. In a commanding performance, she had the audience in the palm of her hand, singing along from start to finish. Latto’s stage presence is a sight to behold. Ass shaking, microphone fellating and even taking her shoes off to go full-throttle, she had the crowd increasingly cheering for more. She proved that women rappers truly are a force to be reckoned with in the genre, and hopefully there will be more of them billed on future iterations of TwoGether Land.
The audience reached peak density in anticipation for headliner Lil Wayne, whose set was delayed as word spread that it might be canceled outright due to safety issues. Crowd members were asked to signal trouble in the thick of it all by flashing their phone lights and letting emergency vehicles through to pick up fainting fans. Momentary gate crashing concerns caused patrons in the VIP section to run en masse for the Music Hall building before many eventually returned to the main stage standing area.
But once the legendary rapper took the stage, all was right in the city as Fair Park was hypnotized in pure bliss by a dynamic set from Lil Wayne. A career-spanning collection of his biggest hits had audience members captivated up until the last minute of the outdoor festival’s cut-off time. One of many highlights included a chorus of thousands of crowd members cooing the vocal breaks to “Mrs. Officer” in unison, to which Wayne exclaimed, “Y'all are fucking beautiful!”
Overall, TwoGether Land’s inaugural weekend was a success despite multiple issues and outrageous ticket pricing ($199 and up). Hopefully the festival will return next year, stronger and informed by this year’s hiccups. And it would be even better to see the next edition scheduled for April before summer heat begins to set in.
