WP_Query() displaying past post / event

I’m making a page for past events (using Event Expresso plugin) and I’m kinda confused about the wp_query.

This one works:

However, this one won’t work (it will still show event past May 11):

Is there something wrong with my code?

The column ‘event_start_date’ returns the event date when I do print_r($post->event_start_date); inside a post loop.

I’m really confused why the 2nd code does not work.

I also tried

and

and its not working. 🙁