FPSF cleanup expected to last until Wednesday

Clean up and breakdown occurs, June 2, 2014 in Houston in Eleanor Tinsley park following a weekend concert, Free Press Summer Fest. Clean up and breakdown occurs, June 2, 2014 in Houston in Eleanor Tinsley park following a weekend concert, Free Press Summer Fest. Photo: Eric Kayne, For The Chronicle Photo: Eric Kayne, For The Chronicle Image 1 of / 207 Caption Close FPSF cleanup expected to last until Wednesday 1 / 207 Back to Gallery

The remains of Free Press Summer Fest were being cleared away Monday at Eleanor Tinsley Park, following two of days of music, heat, and a brief rain delay on Saturday.



Crews got to work just after Jack White's blistering closing set ended at 10 p.m. Sunday to clear rigging in time for Monday rush hour.



By late morning Monday, most of the garbage left over from thousands of festival-goers had been hauled off, with only scattered staging, refuse, and fencing left over. The site should be clear by Wednesday, organizers said.



Tim Dorsey, who has been with the festival since its inception in 2009, heads up part of the annual cleanup. He said he didn't get to bed until 6 a.m. Monday. The last of the festival equipment was removed just as the first morning commuters began rolling through, Dorsey said.



Dorsey says that cleanup crews will be at the site until Wednesday when city officials and festival organizers will have a walk-through of the park to approve the cleaning process up to that point.

On Monday morning he looked over the lost and found stash inside the festival's headquarters on site.



"There's hundreds of dollars in cash, plus cellphones, wallets, credit cards, anything you can imagine," Dorsey said. As for all those sunglasses and hats, Dorsey says they probably made it into a trash bag.



One of the festival organizers, Omar Afra, said Monday that some festival-goers were complaining about the rain delay on Saturday afternoon, which shut down the party for nearly two hours and led to a brief sojourn into downtown for many.



"A lot of people were saying they didn't understand why we evacuated since the event is advertised as rain or shine," said Afra. "But the case was that we had gotten word of potential lightning strikes, which necessitated getting fans out of the park and away from stages and sets."



At no time on Saturday, Afra added, was there a worry about flooding from nearby Buffalo Bayou.



Highlights of the weekend for Afra included the Ms. Lauryn Hill performance Sunday afternoon, and Mayor Annise Parker coming by to introduce indie-folkers Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros onto the stage.



Afra says he won't have complete attendance numbers ready for a weeks or days. He said Saturday that they were expecting just under 100,000 fans at the festival over the two days. He did applaud the staff that helped put the whole thing on.



"It might take about 6,000 people to make this thing happen in total, on site and off site," he said.

Anne Olson with the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, which oversees fundraising and construction of the improvements at Buffalo Bayou Park -- including Eleanor Tinsley Park -- said Monday that additions to the park had already been completed by the time FPSF took it over last week.



"The work on the park itself was completed, but the areas west of the park are still under construction," said Olson.

She added that once the next event at the park, the Southwest Airlines Freedom Over Texas party on July 4, clears out that they will once again continue to make additions to the park, namely a garden.

BBP is responsible for maintenance of the park except for big events like FPSF and Freedom Over Texas, who handle cleanup themselves.