Netflix’s sweet family-comedy Yes Day builds up to the musical event Fleek Fest. Headlining this event is the R&B singer-songwriter H.E.R.
This hilarious movie follows the Torres family, a dysfunctional-yet-loveable bunch. The family decides to participate in a “Yes Day.” This meant that for 24-hours, the three children of the family get to make all of the rules.
What is Fleek Fest?
The music festival aspect comes through the character 14-year-old Katie Torres (Jenny Ortega). She proposes to her mom, Alison (Jennifer Garner), that she should go to the fictionalized music event, Fleek Fest, with her friends, with zero parental supervision. However, Alison is against the idea, and she offers to go as a chaperone.
When the concept of a Yes Day is first introduced, Katie decides to strike a deal: If her parents can’t commit to all of the kid-planned activities, she gets to go to Fleek Fest with her friends and without her mom. On the other hand, if Alison does make it, Katie will have to stick with her mom during the festival.
What happens? Well, parents Alison and Carlos (Edgar Ramirez) find themselves in a jail holding cell after Alison gets into a fight at an amusement park over a giant stuffed pink monkey. Although they were going strong with Yes Day, the kids decide to break free while their parents are in jail and go about their own ways.
Middle child Nando Torres (Julian Lerner) and the youngest, Ellie (Everly Carganilla), leave to attend a huge “nerd party” hosted at their house. Eldest Katie goes off to Fleek Fest on her own.
Things don’t go as planned, and Katie soon finds out that her close friend isn’t as cool as she thought. She finds herself abandoned at the concert with a dead phone. When her newly released-from-jail mom discovers that Katie went to the festival alone, she embarks on a troubling journey to try and find her daughter amongst the busy crowd of teenagers.
Who is the main Fleek Fest singer?
The highly-anticipated singer H.E.R is the big act at Fleek Fest. Hilariously enough, at the beginning of the movie, the Torres matriarch pronounces the performer’s name as the letters “H-E-R.” Kate quickly corrects her mom and says that the singer’s stage name is pronounced as “her.”
H.E.R is a real-life musical artist. She has won multiple Grammy Awards and has been recognized for Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best R&B Album for her self-titled album, among other awards. The performer appears as herself in the movie.
In Yes Day, Alison ends up locating her daughter through the crowds by gaining access to the backstage area and volunteering to sew H.E.R.’s ripped costume as there was no sewist handy. Alison was hauling around a mini sewing kit in her “mom purse” and was able to stitch up the rip quickly.
Then, she requested a favor from the singer and found herself on stage singing Baby, I Need Your Loving by Four Tops to gain her stranded daughter’s attention amongst the festival’s busyness.
When Jenny Ortega, who plays Katie, was informed of H.E.R’s appearance in the movie, she “flipped out.” At the time of her casting, the musical set for the fictional Fleek Fest was still up in the air.
Ortega shared her reaction from when the festival’s headline act was announced to the Yes Day cast. She expressed, “I had an R&B playlist at the time and literally the first 10 songs were H.E.R.! Singing and performing with H.E.R. was a dream come true.”
Yes Day is currently streaming on Netflix.