Yesterday, a storm touched down on Corpus Christi – literally and figuratively. The small city of roughly 300,000 drew crowds of over 50,000 from all over the country and world for the kick-off of Fiesta de la Flor, the inaugural festival celebrating the life of la Reina del Tex Mex, Selena Quintanilla.

The festival, set right on the water, was packed with music and people ready to pay homage (we lost count of the Selena tribute outfits we saw), and despite the insanely long lines for drink tickets and food trucks, everyone was in a great mood.

Unfortunately, a tornado warning forced the festival to cut the night short, ending Los Lobos’ set early and cancelling the planned screening of the Selena movie. We were evacuated from downtown under some mildly terrifying lightning, but that didn’t stop people from flooding nearby bars to hit their Selena cumbia twirls and prep for day 2 of festival.