Ten years ago, if you asked a random person on the street what they knew about Coachella or Bonnaroo, it would have been met with confused stares and questions about your sanity. Now Coachella and Bonnaroo are considered to be cultural epicenters in certain circles and a significant annual music event by all.
Proving itself to be a popular and profitable business in the past five years, music festivals have popped up across Florida emulating these giants, enjoyed by music and pop culture enthusiasts alike without breaking the bank to head towards California and Tennessee. Big Guava Festival in Tampa, Three Points in Miami and Suwannee Halloween in Live Oak fit the bill, each generally focused on their own genres of music.
Big Guava in particular has let local music fans get their festival fix, with both lineups since its inception in 2014 bringing in many acts from Coachella. Bands like The Strokes, Vampire Weekend, and Outkast have all made the trek from California to Florida to perform at both festivals. Big Guava also focuses on having local additions through regional art on display for attendees to see, adding an even greater cultural appeal to the festival.
Some students, like sophomore Grace D’Angelo, were able to attend the inaugural Big Guava Festival in 2014, finding the event to be a great event with a balanced palette.
“I would definitely go to Coachella and Bonnaroo,” said D’Angelo.
“Big Guava was a lot of fun and I met a lot of new friends there.”
In it’s debut year, Suwannee Halloween opts for bands and artists on the obscure side of things. The only easily recognizable names on the lineup are Primus and Chance the Rapper, the latter of which is performing his more experimental music, appearing as Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment.
“I would go to the smaller festivals like Suwannee and Three Points because it offers a totally different vibe than the other festivals,” said D’Angelo.
But in contrast to the jukebox-genres Big Guava and Three Points, Florida EDM festivals have been gaining national attention, with Ultra in Miami, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Orlando, and Sunset in Tampa. All of these festivals have been created in the past ten years and have only grown in popularity as the years have passed.
Two of Florida’s biggest EDM festivals have become world class events that bring in people from around the globe. Ultra and EDC in particular are recognized as some of the premier festivals in the EDM scene, bringing in the most popular DJ’s and producers to perform year after year.
“It’s a really fun experience, especially the bigger ones like EDC, because they have crazier artists and more stages, which I personally like,” said senior Page Blackburn.
Blackburn has been to Sunset, where she helped run the event as well as capture photographs of the experience.
“I’ve been to punk and hardcore festivals too, and those are also a lot of fun. I’d also go to alternative ones also,” said Blackburn.
The best example of this spread into Florida is the recently announced Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival. This festival, created by the same promoters who worked on Bonnaroo, hopes to revitalize the Lake Okeechobee area, and offer music fans nationally a chance to visit the state at the aptly named Sunshine Grove property. Only recently was the first lineup announced, with Mumford & Sons, Kendrick Lamar, and Skrillex as the headliners.
The Okeechobee Festival currently is selling three day General Admission tickets, with the second batch of artists to be announced within the coming weeks. The festival itself is slated for Mar. 4 to 6, promising a great weekend for all music fans.
The general consensus seems to be that festivals are a fun place to listen to music and meet new people, and seeping itself into the mainstream. They have come a long way from the obscurity they were once shrouded in, now operating as havens for the hipster, the party goer, and the odd.
Andrew Zilbauer // Web Editor
