Rapper Will.o.be. welcomed back The Park’s estivators as he opened the first annual Beats of Burden Music Festival on Saturday, September 14.
Famous Park rapper Will.o.be. opened the first annual Beats of Burden Music Festival on Saturday with a tribute to The Park’s estivating population.
As the rapper leapt to the stage amid almost deafening cheers, he stopped to bow to a group of estivators at the front of the crowd.
“I’m as happy as everybody else is that The Park’s entire population is present and accounted for and ready to roar,” he said. Then he turned his microphone toward the obviously enthusiastic audience and exhorted them to “Roar! Roar! Roar!”
And roar they did, through his opening set, three encores and even when he was brought back to perform with the music festival’s founders, The Beasts of Burden.
“This is the most fantastic audience I’ve ever had,” the rapper said, and the Beasts’ lead singer Alfredo Ox concurred.
“You amaze me!” he shouted.
“If I ever get down on things…or think things are impossible, I will think of this weekend and the turnout that we’re getting and how much we care about each other in The Park. I know that the words ‘Thank You’ are not enough, but they will have to do for now, until we have time to write you all a song of thanks,” he said.
The Beasts then performed one of their biggest hits, “The Day the Oxen Rose,” after dedicating it to “the beneficiaries of this festival…The Park’s refugees.”
The Beats of Burden Music Festival continues until tonight. All proceeds from the festival (including related clothing and other products) will go toward aiding The Park’s refugees.
