Set on Halloween weekend, 2016 at an idyllic park just miles away from the bustling French Quarter was the 16th Annual Voodoo Music + Art Experience. With R&B star The Weeknd, metal gods Tool, and Canadian rockers Arcade Fire headlining the festival with a solid undercard of established and emerging acts, there was something for just about everyone, from club kids to your metal-loving uncle.

The culture and soul of New Orleans permeated the event with lots of art installations, dancing (outside of the EDM stage), and creative costumes. The weather also cooperated over the three days, as it was dry with highs in the mid-80s and without any interruptions (like in 2015, when bad weather washed out the last day).

October 28, 2016

Day one saw the largest crowd of the weekend as, un-ironically, the Weeknd served as the main headliner, drawing in the youngest audience. Starting with “The Hills” and one of the first live performances of “False Alarm,” Abel Tesfaye, with a more streamlined haircut, got the crowd pumped all of the way through to “I Can’t Feel My Face” and “Starboy.”

Local ties to New Orleans provided G-Eazy and Mutemath sizeable crowds on Day One. G-Eazy came on stage dressed as the Joker from comics and belting out “Random” and crowd favorites “I Mean It” and “Me Myself and I” that included a New Orleans brass band.

Fresh off their tour with Twenty One Pilots, New Orleans-based Mutemath got the crowd moving with “Used To” and “Light Up,” before acrobatic lead singer Paul Meany brought his daughter onstage to assist on “Reset” off of Mutemath’s 2006 self-titled album.

Reignwolf was a standout on Day One as the leather clad blues rocker writhed and contorted across the stage to “Hardcore” and “In the Dark,” and at one point walked out to the crowd and teetered on the edge of barricade to perform “Electric Love” to the audience that clapped along to the beat. Foals from the UK was another rocking band from the first day; their set exploded with energy as lead vocalist and guitarist Yannis Philippakis jumped around the stage and into the crowd.

Earlier in the day a number of featured artist gave the fest a more soulful sound. The Seratones brought their bluesy rock from Shreveport; Mayer Hawthorne wooed the crowd with tumbler of whiskey in hand; and Wild Belle (in matching black jackets) performed an eclectic pop sound with touches of reggae.

October 29, 2016

Day Two had a lineup that brought out the headbangers. A rare appearance by Tool drew a crowd with a harder edge that was much older than fans from the previous day. Covering material from Aenima, Lateralus, and Opiate, Tool energized a crowd of fans that sang along to every one of the shrouded lead singer Maynard James Keenan’s words.

The rocking jams were easy to be found at City Park on Saturday with Cage the Elephant and Claypool Lennon Delirium laying down some fuzzed out guitar tunes. Cage the Elephant’s lead singer Matt Shultz took the prize of the weekend for physical fitness by running and jumping back and forth across the stage and into the crowd as he belted “Cry Baby,” “In One Ear,” and “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked.”

Les Claypool of Primus fame and Sean Lennon (breaking from his Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger work) recently released Monolith of Phobos, an album with a strong psychedelic vibe. Starting with “Cricket and the Genie” and “Breath of a Salesman,” the duo led a jam session that ended covering Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” and the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

Grammy-winning Swedish heavy metal band Ghost took the Halloween vibe to a whole new level on day two with their satanic-themed theatrical costuming. Lead vocalist Papa Emeritus III’s and his nameless devil-horned ghouls were downright spooky as they hit the crowd with “Square Hammer” and “Cirice” from 2016’s Meliora.

During day two, a few emerging acts had performances worth noting. Nashville-based bands All Them Witches brought stoner psych rock, and their crosstown friends Bully performed their second wave of female-fronted grunge. Over on the South Cross stage, Texas’s Shakey Graves had the crowd singing along to his self-described “hobo-folk” while wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume and cheesy grin.

October 30, 2016

A smaller crowd on day three meant that everyone who did snatch up a ticket got pretty good views of bands that ranged from hip-hop and EDM to indie rock. Despite reports of the band playing new material at a house show the previous night, Arcade Fire stuck to their hits from “Funeral,” “Reflektor,” “The Suburbs,” and “Neon Bible,” with nary a peep of the new. Not that anyone was complaining — the 13-piece band thrilled the audience from “Ready to Start” and “Suburbs” all the way to end with “Wake Up” from 2004’s Funeral that had fans harmonizing along with Will Butler as they exited the festival grounds one last time.

Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals got into the Halloween theme on day three by coming on to the stage to Guns N Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” looking like a hair metal band. With sharpened chops from a slew of festivals in 2016, their performance was one of the best of the weekend. .Paak smoothly moved from “Come Down” to “Milk and Honey” before taking his seat at the drum kit for “Put Me Thru.”

Top awards for showmanship at Voodoo Fest belong to Puscifer and Beats Antique. Both bands showed up with awesome stage productions worthy of an off Broadway show. Puscifer, led by Maynard James Keenan of Tool fame, went full-on Lucha Libre with elaborate Mexican wrestling outfits and truncated wrestling ring. It was fun watching the band perform “The Remedy” while two female wrestlers had an actual match on stage.

Finally, the trio the makes up Beats Antique captivated the audience with their experimental world fusion sounds paired with the belly dancing of the beautiful Zoey Jakes. Even though not everyone was familiar with their tunes, hearing “Egyptic” and “Beauty Beats” performed live turned some of the audience into instant fans. Jakes was joined on stage at various points by three other belly dancers that performed with her on the drums and even slayed a 20-foot-tall inflatable dragon on stage. The bands and the setting made this undoubtedly a top fest of the year.