The dark gray sky was foreboding, and it looked even more so behind the large, towering buildings that surrounded the courtyard. The abandoned campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital, once home to 7,000 mental health patients, now offers little more than broken windows and menacingly antiquated gothic architecture. But on Saturday afternoon, the type of gloomy day that generally discourages exploring dilapidated “hospitals for the insane,” thousands of people swarmed into a clearing between the looming structures, waiting excitedly for this year’s Broccoli City Festival to begin.

“How are y’all feeling?,” an event emcee hyped up the crowd.

“Fucking lit!,” a woman in the back screamed as the people around her laughed.

For the fourth year in a row, Washington nonprofit Broccoli City brought hip-hop sounds and a message of sustainability to the community of Southeast Washington for a sold-out day of “treating vegetables like gold.”

The stage, garnished with banners proclaiming that message and blinged-out golden broccoli, was home to some of hip-hop’s hottest acts throughout the afternoon and into the evening, even though the temperature never broke 60.

After an opening set by R&B hook-man BJ the Chicago Kid, the growing crowd patiently waited for Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals, the West Coast crooner with a Dr. Dre seal of approval, critically acclaimed 2016 album and heralded Coachella performance under his belt. While the Broccoli City crowd was undoubtedly smaller and less flower-crowned than their California counterparts, that certainly didn’t mean .Paak put on any less of a performance.

When he ran onstage (after a few unseen cries of “yes, lawd!”), it was clear that .Paak’s appeal was more than just critical. His fedora and mirrored shades screamed star power, and the crooked grin cemented on his face made it clear he was having as much fun onstage as the swaying and grooving audience was several feet below him. And if the Malibu rapper’s swagger wasn’t enough to impress, his musical prowess left few doubts. During “Drugs,” one of the perpetually laidback Los Angeles artist’s few true bangers, he bounced around the stage like a madman, and on slower cuts like the Malibu highlight “The Season / Carry Me,” he would slip away behind an audience member’s cloud of vape smoke, only to reappear behind a drumset, where he seemed equally at home.

Even after the final funky note of “Am I Wrong” (an audience favorite) had been played, the crowd’s energy stayed high. The between-sets DJ played radio rap tracks and 90s classics while the audience treated it like another concert — even singing every last screechy adlib in Travis Scott’s “Antidote.”

So when Sángo, one of the architects behind California beat collective Soulection’s “The Sound of Tomorrow,” took his place at the decks, the energy stuck around. Brazilian-influenced trap and bass-heavy rap tracks rattled chest cavities and the surrounding brick walls. But for all of Sángo’s exotic instrumentation, his special guests were of a decidedly local flavor. Waldorf-raised R&B singer SPZRKT showed up to perform a couple of songs from his collaborative EP with the producer and D.C. rapper GoldLink made a short guest appearance at the end to perform a new song — written, according to Sángo, specifically for Broccoli City.

Not every set was as carefully crafted, however. Odd Future alumni The Internet played a perfectly adequate, if slightly boring set that drained much of the color from their usually vibrant neo-soul, as if to match the worsening weather. And it certainly didn’t help that the band was told they only had a few minutes left and wrapped up with both brilliant singles (“Girl” and “Special Affair”) from their latest album before realizing they still had ten minutes to fill.

And if the darkening clouds matched The Internet’s performance, then the rain that fell during Jhené Aiko’s was a welcome surprise — for all but a few diehard fans, it was the only thing that kept the audience awake. After a half hour of energy-draining love songs, the R&B singer finally performed the contagiously joyful DJ Mustard-produced Omarion collaboration “Post To Be.” Except she played it for a single minute before transforming it into an absurdly self-serious acoustic ballad. An acoustic ballad boasting the line “he gotta eat the booty like groceries.” Beautiful.

But from the moment he walked on stage, iconic styrofoam cup in hand, it was clear that headliner Future wasn’t suffering from an enthusiasm deficit. If anyone in the buzzing, wet crowd doubted Future’s two-year hot streak, denying it after an hour-long performance of hit after hit would have been sheer blasphemy. “F— Up Some Commas,” “Move That Dope” and “Jumpman”: He sprinted through chart-topping bangers with a nonchalant hype that the crowd mirrored without any of his collectedness.

Of course, hearing that many Future songs back to back is a reminder that despite his popularity and prolificity, the Atlanta rapper has a lot of tracks that sound very similar. Booming bass, choppy hi-hats and barked, staccato choruses are Future’s signature, and while they get a crowd moving, they make it difficult to distinguish one mixtape cut from another. Regardless of the musical monotony, Future put on a hell of a show, sprinting and leaping around the stage with a mania that would have placed him in a padded room in St. Elizabeths a century earlier.

And even when the festival came to a close, the crowd, sagging under the weight of the rain and a day spent on their feet, couldn’t help but shout along with every word of Drake’s “Summer Sixteen” as they shuffled off the grounds, leaving a day of good vibes behind with the buildings Jhené Aiko had earlier called “spooky.”

FESTIVAL NOTES:

  • Location, location, location: Though St. Elizabeths proved a suitably weird setting for the festival, the actual layout had some problems. The main stage was isolated from the arts and fashion booths set up under the Gateway D.C. pavilion and gave the festival’s other attractions a weirdly disjointed feel.

  • Oh, right, marijuana is legal(ish) in Washington. “Who’s got the weed out here?” an event emcee asked, ignoring the large “DRUG FREE ZONE” sign at the entrance as Dr. Dre’s “Xxplosive” played in the background.

  • R.I.P. Prince: Prince-related art was all over the festival grounds, and a tribute to the late singer played on screen before Future’s set. Jhené Aiko also ended her set with a Prince cover.

  • Several performers commented on the surrounding hospital. “I want the old ghosts in these old psychiatric hospitals to hear you,” Syd Tha Kyd, lead singer of The Internet quipped. Jhené Aiko’s reaction was more confused: “Is this a building? What is this?” she asked. “It looks haunted. Spooky.”

  • Sángo wasn’t the only Soulection artist to make an appearance. Virginia producer Lakim had a surprise DJ set between scheduled acts.

  • Does Future have too many albums? The rapper asked the audience if they owned each one of his albums before he played a song from the corresponding project. Spoiler: He has a lot (and at times seemed to struggle to remember which songs were on which).

  • Broccoli City’s goal is to educate the people of Southeast Washington about the importance of eating healthy and caring for the environment.