Bring a Portable Heater to Okechobee Music and Arts Festival
Mossy oaks fade into palm trees equally I voyage downward the Florida panhandle to Sunshine Grove. Nestled amongst Florida farms in Okeechobee, FL is a tropical oasis of sun-kissed Okeechobeeings and endless smiles. Later on a "spring year" due to the pandemic, Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival is dorsum for 2022. The festival is in its fifth yr and beaming with sunshine and expert vibes as it always has. Just in time for the superlative of Florida'southward dreamy atmospheric condition, this immersive weekend brings a dynamic line-up of globe-renown artists. Not to mention interactive experiences, grandiose art installations, and some of the dankest nutrient trucks I've always had the pleasure of tasting. Okee boasts accented bangers like Queen Megan Thee Stallion, dreamy Tame Impala, rap gods Earthgang, bass infant Rezz, the modernistic king of dejection Gary Clark Jr., cornball Porter Robinson, and fifty-fifty more scrumptious sounds grace half dozen stages for an ballsy weekend of diverse music.
Okee has changed with the times and I need to become reacquainted with the layout. The Hither Stage moved since I was concluding in attendance and is a major upgrade allowing for the most sensual of sunsets to bless our eyes. It's also worth mentioning that the sound is no longer competing between the Exist and Now stages with the alteration. I have a long list of memories in this magical land and I take every intention of extending it. Okeechobee Music Festival is a super popular destination for fresh festival-goers, their veteran friends, parents and their kids, and literally anyone looking to get down. This mix makes for such a complex community of compassion, churr, and conveying on. I am thrilled and eager to exist here at present.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photo provided by Insomniac. Photographer: Alex Perez
/// Fri
Of The Trees /// Pepper /// Gary Clark Jr. /// Earthgang /// Tame Impala /// Supertask /// Freddy Todd /// Yheti
I kick off the weekend past meeting up with a festy baby that I haven't seen in months. I am pleasantly surprised that I am able to take a 360 video to show her my location, it's immediately delivered, and she pops upwardly moments later. Quality cell service is not always a guarantee at a festival of this size only information technology'due south always a treat and so you tin requite your homies dorsum dwelling house some severe FOMO. (They at present know non to miss information technology next year.) While I normally try to get camp set up immediately upon arrival, at that place is no time, every bit I would miss my kickoff ready of the weekend, Of The Copse. The sun is setting over the lake at Aquachobee and I am quickly reminded that the wintertime festival attire has been retired for bathing suits and combat boots. Information technology's sunny and 75, and the oversupply is sun-kissed and sweaty. Tyler Coomb dishes out warpy womps and the wait is over, I am here.
I laissez passer through Chobeewobee Village to familiarize myself with what this wonderful globe has to offer. Seductive smells of multi-cuisine and sunscreen fill my nostrils and I immediately regret eating before inflow. Kickoff on my agenda is Pepper, a high school favorite of mine that was the soundtrack to embankment trips in my prime. And so I meander to the Be stage through a tree tunnel of multicultural music. Waiting patiently for a belatedly start fourth dimension, I antipodal with the other front-row campers until our favorite "muddy niggling Hawaiin boys" ask, "Have yous waited long plenty?" They dedicate "Rent" to all the moms out there and in synchronicity, I get the "I meet you made it safely, have a blast" text from my mother. Kaleo Wassman (Vocalizer/Guitarist) gets united states clapping with "give me some skin on skin action" alluding to Florida'due south lackadaisical response to the pandemic and the crowd giggles. He's not incorrect after all. Drummer, Yesod Williams blesses us with a bass-heavy rendition of "Gin and Juice" and I time travel to 16 before hire was a concept I understood. I recollect, this is it, it couldn't get whatsoever amend UNTIL Christopher Mintz-Plasse AKA McLovin from Superbad walks on stage to shred the bass guitar, and I transcend.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photo provided by Insomniac. Photographer: Ivan Meneses
I have a sliver of daylight left to set up camp and so I have advantage. I feel similar an absolute badass setting my tent upwards solitary in record time (I'm merely 4'eleven")! I hustle to see Gary Clark Jr., which by-God I am glad I did. This is my first time seeing him perform and information technology is exponentially better than anticipated. He lights usa upwards with "Bright Lights," allowing me to come across everyone grin from ear to ear. He belts "yous're gonna know my name" and not a incertitude in my mind that everyone there will never forget it. Bringing intense bluesy dissonance followed by sweetness, sweetness releases, I scout the crowd melt every few moments. I want to stay just have to haul it to the second half of Earthgang at the Now stage. While being tiny is non convenient for setting up tents, it has its perks when I shimmy my mode to the rail considering everyone can see directly over top of me. They remind usa to "make sure we are looking out for our strong friends and ourselves" with some positive, conscious rap. The squads hinge their heads to smile at their best friends, swaying and hugging. "Proud of You" has the crowd erupting in dance and I start scheming how I can get stage entertainment as a backup dancer for them considering I am truly feeling myself.
Buzzing back to Be stage, I can definitely tell it is headliners-o'clock. The oversupply is thicker than a Southern beige. If you lot told me all thirty,000 attendees are walking simultaneously from Earthgang to Tame Impala with me right now – I'd believe you lot. Opening with "I More Twelvemonth" the lyric "I never wanted any other style to spend our lives" hits domicile with me and a gorgeous, gorgeous daughter adjacent to me who starts happy-crying. Kevin Parker, the Australian psychedelic dreamsicle of an artist also known as Tame Impala, sends us into a trance-like sway for an hour and a half. The confetti lingers and is reminiscent of Television receiver static in the glistening lights. They shut with "New Person, Same Former Mistakes" and read out the humorous totems in the crowd. This has been an all-around pleasurable experience!
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photograph provided by Insomniac. Photographer: Ivan Meneses
Feeling slightly like the cattle that probably roam this land when we don't, I follow the masses to Incendia. The temperature difference in the crowd versus the journey between stages is vast, and so I look forward to the warmth of a fiery B2B of Supertask, Freddy Todd, and Yheti (billed equally "Special Guest"). Supertask brings a yin and yang of fast-paced EDM followed by ambient business firm. From backstage I encounter him throw downwardly while simultaneously smoking a cigarette, super-tasking if you inquire me. By now, it is by my bedtime in the real world and then I enjoy Freddy Todd from a couch backstage, though the dancing definitely doesn't end. The man is glitch-hopping all over. I wish the whole crowd could see just how sidesplitting his dance moves are. They have me and the girls cackling from the couch. The altogether boy, Yheti, finishes out my night equally I migrate into a deep slumber to his deep rhythms and soothing melodies, a perk of a close-past camping ground spot.
/// Saturday
Rome In Silver /// Papadosio // Elephant Heart /// Haywyre /// PowWow /// Megan the Stallion /// Griz /// Eazybaked
I wake surprisingly rested, throw on as little clothes as possible and skip over to a friend's camp for some caffeine and catching up on all the hysterical moments of last dark. I can't get too comfy, equally I'thou amped to go involved (and become some corrupt chocolate) with Participation Row. Headcount, whom most take encountered if they are live music fans, has teamed up with Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival for the fifth year to promote participation in republic and incite acts of activism for the customs of Okee, Okeechobee County, and our nation as a whole. This fest is all about community, gratitude, and the "Be Here At present" mentality that Participation Row encompasses. I write down something I am trying to let get of on a piece of paper and the founder of Cheers For Our Service, an organization that supports veterans, turns it into ashes. He tells me that the ashes become buried in Sunshine Grove after the festival to "lay our worries to residue in the magical place that heals them." Martha'southward House, a domestic abuse shelter, has me pigment my mitt with a colour that represents how I felt growing up in my home. I leave my print on a giant canvas covered with all the emotions of the Okeechobeeings I'm prancing around with. At Treasure Coast Food Depository financial institution they mitt me a plate to write downwardly how I experience about food scarcities and sharing. The tables are full of plates, but how it should be. As I take it all in, pausing at the Helping People Succeed tent to read all of the positive affirmations posted on the walls. I snag my oh so delectable Tony'south Chocolonely chocolate bar and devour it instantly. The wrapper is so sick that I have to fold it up and put it in my fanny pack as memorabilia. I always beloved the warm feeling making small differences in the community gives me and I see the aforementioned joy in everyone else participating.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photo provided by Insomniac. Photographer: Alex Perez
Dessert came before dinner but I need more than fuel if I am going to proceed my dancing legs moving until the sun comes upward. While I am in Chobeewobee Village, I guzzle this flash-frozen fruit concoction that'due south a fruity fantasy in my rima oris. Little bursts of mango and pineapple explode similar Gushers. I launder it down with some sips of tea from the Bamboo Garden and scan through Vendor Village. It's a practical mall in which I am the specific target market place.
My start set of the day is Rome In Silver. Nothing like a piddling grimey bass in the breezy sunshine to actually become things heated up. A embankment ball makes its way to the stage endless times and the security guard continuously retrieves it for u.s.a.. Information technology's quality client service on his function and I would love to tell his manager he deserves a heighten. The gals and I came to Okee solitary so we are no doubt "Jumpin', Jumpin'" as "ladies leave your man at abode" permeates through the sunrays. Another walk through the jungle leads me to some jammy Papadosio, shredding every bit e'er. My taste meets my dad's taste with some electronic progressive stone and I watch families stone out in unison. The hoop section is forepart right instead of in the back like usual, which provides a razzle-dazzle of actress amusement for my viewing pleasance. I haven't honestly heard of Elephant Heart so I am pumped to come across what they have to offer. Being a aureate hour set, the hubby and wife duo encompass the Florida weather all within an hr, with Victoria Evigan taking her jumpsuit on and off every other song. She is giving me Ellie Goulding meets Halsey vibes, some electro-popular with global influences. The oversupply is playing a game of how many times we can wrap and unwrap ourselves in a pashmina because we are equally hot and common cold. The duo's stage chemical science makes me slightly envious of their love so I make my fashion back to camp to figure out this outfit dilemma.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photograph provided by Insomniac. Photographer: Alex Perez
I am greeted by a four-legged friend in my tent that is not function of the festy squad. I inquire the scaly piffling bastard if he has his wristband or if he snuck into the fest and he acts like he doesn't hear me.. How user-friendly! I outfit change thrice, chug 3 bottles of water, and enter the portal yet again for the PowWow of George Clinton, P-Funk, Taz (who I saw when he was like 9 years old and have been mesmerized ever since) Earthgang, and MonoNeon. I have been dreaming of an acai bowl for days so I brand dreams into realities. One time once more, I am shooketh at how scrumptious the food is, the damn smoothie bowl weighs (what felt similar) near 9 pounds and revives me while I am serenaded by the greats. A truthful delight. With the taste of paradise still on my lips, I rance (the discussion I use for my run and trip the light fantastic toe philharmonic) through a Caribbean holiday of sounds from The Grove to Aquachobee for Haywyre. The tropical wubs he's bringing feel like a Cuban java selection me upwardly on the beaches of Miami.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photos provided by Insomniac
The sunshine sucked the life out of me then I power nap with the new lizard roommate in prep for a double stack of dancing for Megan Thee Stallion and GRiZ. I snooze my alert too many times to catch The Glitch Mob, which I will never forgive myself for merely am awoken past Megan hollering over the mic. I slide into my Hot Daughter Shit attire and take off running to the rail. She and her dancers make me question every ounce of sexual straightness within me, an absolute liability for every boyfriend in the oversupply. The hottest of hot girls are pulled on phase and I am fully expecting C+ dance moves at all-time, wrong once more, these women await similar they were trained by Megan herself. The whole production is similar a strip club for women empowerment. They should have had her at Participation Row considering it was literal feminist activism for loving your body just the style it is. She genuinely cries out of gratitude for her fans and and then does every daughter in the crowd who has e'er hated themselves, all while shaking our asses like savages.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photo provided by Insomniac. Lensman: Alex Perez
I spread out in the grass to cool down for a half-hour before GRiZ takes the stage. He wastes zero time opening with "Crystals Id" that turns me into the heaping pile of lo mein I simply ate. There is a level of bass that makes my legs limp noodles and my torso thrust over the rail in a ridiculous fashion, though thankfully, I am ane of the thousands who feel the same. Covering "Heat Waves," Grant Kwiecinski AKA Griz, makes me grateful for the cooler temps of the evening. He is bouncing from the DJ berth to the forepart of the stage then we tin run into his precious confront and his igniting dance moves. Fireworks send me into outer space as I spin in circles in awe at how they are engulfing the sky full of stars. I'm in awe of the vibe of the crowd, in awe of the lazers, and all that is Okeechobee. Riding the loftier, I make a guest appearance in Jungle 51 and at the Incendia stage for Eazybaked, who encapsulate this age in music. Genre line riding so hard I can't even categorize their audio, other than lots of heavy bass. Ultimately I demand to get some shuteye earlier some other full twenty-four hours of debauchery. I apply my festival vet knowledge to scrubadubdub in a hot shower all to myself while everyone is nonetheless partaking in wookery, a luxury. Earplugs in, blanket hoodie on, night night bois.
/// Sunday
NotLo B2B Veil /// Mize /// Mt Joy /// Jungle /// CloZee /// Porter Robinson
Every bit soundchecks showtime and the sun rises, I lose the earplugs and my coating hoodie. I feel information technology in my basic that it is going to be a HAWT one today. Sun mornings at festivals are for making my style to any and all activities and shopping, Chobeewobee Village is calling. A friend and I make our way to the M Antique Bazaar. It's and so I overhear a conversation at the "Stuff, Meliorate Stuff" trading post most a human trying to trade a human tooth. What a place to be? What a fourth dimension to exist alive? In that location is a couple dancing with ribbons, in sync and silky, staring into each other's souls. My thirst needs quenching and I remember how lovely the hibiscus tea is. Information technology is also time for wind-chime making and Tye-Dye Sundye, so I pop over to the Bamboo Garden to go crafty. The artists and the stick-figure blazon all conglomerate to make something special to take home with them.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photo provided past Insomniac. Photographer: Kelsie Fillmore
I mail service a Exist Hither At present postcard to a homie that I miss and bounciness to Here for NotLo B2B Veil. Megan inspired all the Okeechobeeings to be on their worst behavior with these outfit choices. As the temps ascent, the apparel are at an best low. NotLo has the Okee vibe of peace, love and wubs while Veil provides the grimier of u.s. with some bass rattling drum and bass and dubstep. I withhold as much headbanging as possible to avoid a rut stroke but the DJ's top fans didn't hold out at all. I adore them with a bombardment-powered fan to my confront.
Mize is high on my priorities so I fight to survive the heat. He covers "Soul Survivor" past Akon and I feel the synchronicities. Dripping in serotonin from the sun and whimsical womps, I sink into his remix of Collie Buddz "Come Effectually" and am once once more transported to being a teenager. It is cold shower time and I savor every droplet.
The time is at present. When everyone makes their list of resolutions for the twelvemonth, I brand a list of artists that I Volition come across. Mt. Joy takes the #1 spot on that list for 2022 and I can't incorporate myself. Opening with "I'm Your Wreck" I am a wreck of emotions, blissful tears fall. Chop-chop followed by a burst of laughter when Matt Quinn tries to flip a h2o bottle on the stage, it falls, and he says "that would take been so cool." Up against Smino and Manic Focus, there are enough loyal fans here that the audio cuts out while trying to fix Sam Cooper's guitar and the unabridged crowd sings every word to a "Jenny Jenkins" verse. Matt Quinn is impressed, which means Matt Quinn is impressed with me, which means I tin at present die happy. Jackie Miclau makes the lack of lead guitar almost unnoticeable with how hard she shreds the keys and presently we become the memo that Sam is dorsum in business concern equally he solos midway through "Let Loose." Anybody around me is then into this set that I most accept to enquire them to stop singing so I can engulf myself in the performance. The sunshine theme of the weekend is alluded to with "Own't No Sunshine" by Nib Withers followed past "Sunshine in a Bag" by Gorillaz. Mt. Joy brought me enough sunshine for a damn lifetime and is the "Silver Lining" to an incredible weekend.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photo provided past Insomniac. Photographer: Juliana Bernstein
A speedy military camp run to gather all of my frick to frack and to debrief after I was only abducted to heaven and sent dorsum to Earth to tell the others. To the Jungle I become, for some wild electronic creations and chats with a long-time friend that is working product. She joins me for the final song of CloZee which I skedaddle to, as I hear Anderson Paak through the speakers. I may never "Come Downwardly" from this elating experience of a festival. With a 10-minute gap between CloZee and Porter Robinson, I layer up for belatedly-night and head to Porter Robinson. Information technology is a nostalgic, synth-pop set for then many Okee OG'southward, as he took the stage dorsum in 2017. He plays "Shelter" and the friend and I reminisce. She mentions that she saw him in 2012 and how she idea and so that she may be "too old" for festivals, I say the aforementioned about his set in 2017. Even so here nosotros are, non just attending a decade (or a half of one) later but thriving while doing so. He is doing some sick shit with a voice changer that he plainly recently learned how to do alive, showing us his masculine and feminine polarities. Meanwhile his visuals feel like I'm the controller of my ain video game. "We depend on you" echoes as fireworks dance above u.s. and I think to myself, I depend on this community. I depend on the petty moments of being nowadays in the now, I depend on the big moments that cross off bucket list bands, I depend on the friends that get family.
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival 2022 ⭐ Photo provided by Insomniac. Photographer: Tony Nungaray
I close out the weekend with the always entertaining Frick Frack Casino. I am non one to hazard in the real world, only I may need a fiddling Frick Frackers Anonymous after winning entirely as well many times in a row. Juicy, the e'er sassy Russian Roulette dealer dishes out dares and requests bets of human hairs. We oblige. The wee hours of the marrow are approaching, and then I (and the lizard homie) drift into dreamland.
The rumble of cars cranking begins and that is my betoken that information technology is time to exit, though the postal service-festival blues aren't swallowing me up this time, as my eye is full. I feel recharged and ready to take all of the positivity and love I was shown, back home with me. The jungle oasis of the Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival has a fashion of blasting sunshine into your mind with music, with customs, with beloved, with yummy nutrient, and with a sense of divine synchronicity. As I travel habitation, I repeat to myself "Be Here Now." I'll exist here adjacent yr and for years to come.
Okeechobee 2022 Live Review by Kelsie Pace.
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