Rendez-vous Houston
Free Press Summerfest is this weekend, and I'm sure you all are just as
ecstatic as we are! With headliners like Willie Nelson, Snoop Dog, The
Flaming Lips, and Erykah Badu, as well as acts ranging from the local to
the international level, it's sure to be a memorable two days. It's
hard to imagine that this expansive local music festival began only 4
years ago in 2009. The festivities have got us here at the UH Digital
Library thinking about what went on in Houston before Summerfest, what
magical concert captivated the entire city and had it's citizens flock
to downtown, jamming its streets and highways with traffic, filling the
space with music and sound and pure energy. Well in looking through the
1986 yearbook, we think we have found that moment. Long before Major
Lazer, Afrojack, and Free Press Summerfest there was Jean Michel Jarre
and Rendez-vous Houston.
In 1985, French composer Jean Michel Jarre set out to put on a massive
performance for the city of Houston to celebrate the city's 150th
birthday as well as NASA's 25th birthday. Jarre composed a piece
entitled Rendez-vous Houston, a three-movement work inspired by
the city's transformation from a rural small town to the "Space City".
The performance was an interactive lazer show, using the city's own
buildings to project various light installations across the skyline. The
show almost didn't happen due to the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
which happened only a few months before the set performance. Jarre
insisted on continuing the performance as a way to remember the
Challenger crew.
On April 5th, 1986, Jean Michel Jarre and his ensemble took to the stage for a record breaking crowd of over 1 million people. Due to the risk of fireworks harming the audience, the performance was only permitted by the Houston Fire Department on a "see how it goes" basis. The concert was so huge, 1-45 was shutdown due to people parking their cars in the middle of the highway to see the show!
On April 5th, 1986, Jean Michel Jarre and his ensemble took to the stage for a record breaking crowd of over 1 million people. Due to the risk of fireworks harming the audience, the performance was only permitted by the Houston Fire Department on a "see how it goes" basis. The concert was so huge, 1-45 was shutdown due to people parking their cars in the middle of the highway to see the show!
Images were found in our 1986 Houstonian as a part of our Houstonian Yearbook Collection. Make sure to check our other fascinating collections filled with links to Houston's past history and culture here at the UH Digital Library!
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