Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival

By in Festivals

After disembarking our cruise ship Sunday morning at Port Canaveral, we headed south to Sunshine Groves just outside Okeechobee, Florida just in time for Day 4 at Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival.
The Okeechobeefest grounds are huge with ample space for 7 music stages plus acres for camping.
Okeechobee is a mix of live bands and DJ sets. During our visit, we focused on the DJ’s playing there. This is the Aquachobee stage.
This is the Here stage.
And this is the Now stage. It sits side-by-side with the Be stage which we never got a chance to visit.
Located within this palm grove, the T-Lounge stage. The two other stages we never made it to were called the Incendia stage and the Jungle 51 stage.
Sunday service began at 12:30PM at the Here stage. For the most part everyone was just laying both inside and outside the tent listening to the music.
Seated on a raised mat, a super-Ambient set from Lightcode by LSDream (USA).
Super chill.
Everyone was either sleeping or meditating. Although we’ve seen DJ LSDream in Orlando before, this was the first time we’ve experienced a Lightcode set.
The next set went on at the Aquachobee stage.
DJ Lumia (USA)
Just a handful here at this early hour.
Daily visitors are welcome at OMF but most here are camping.
Or glamping!
Back under the tent, that huge crowd for Lightcode had cleared-out.
Up next, DJ duo Cut & Sew (USA).
The Tampa-based duo giving us a mostly House set.
We first met them in 2021 at EDC-Orlando as seen in this photo from the Blog archives.
The crowd was growing at this stage.
We met so peeps during our travels around the OMF grounds.
Thank you everyone for your poses!
Around 4PM we headed back to Aquachobee (so-named because it has its own beach).
The power noise that is Dubstep had the crowd bouncing.
DJ Steller (USA)
Dubstep, Heavy Bass, Riddim. Over the years we’ve seen her play at EDC, Forbidden Kingdom, Countdown Orlando Invasion as well as here at OMF.
Fans of the heavier genres of Bass music will want to attend this year’s 2-day Forbidden Kingdom Music Festival in Orlando on April 25-26 with information and advance tickets (including single day) here.
At Okeechobee there’s shopping.
Dozens of food vendors.
Dozens of drink venues.
A library.
Lots of art.
A Logo store.
But this ain’t EDC. Only one carnival ride. You can get your EDC-Orlando info and tickets here.
My favorite set of the day came from within The T Lounge.
On the decks (on the right), DJ Maure (CO/USA).
House music all day long.
The setting within the shade from this sabal palm grove.
The music mostly House, at times with some Nu Disco mixed in.
On a day with a lot of Dubstep, this was our happy place.
Maure and his colleague DJ friend had the grove bouncing!
It was absolutely packed when we returned to the Aquachobee stage!
DJ duo Smoakland (USA) was playing here at 5PM.
Dubstep duo.
The peeps at Okee want Dubstep. Huge roar from the crowd at the end of their set when Smoakland announced “Fuck Donald Trump and Fuck ICE”.
They were immediately followed by DJ Mary Droppinz (USA).
When she played in Orlando last year she delivered a mostly Breaks set but that was not to be yesterday as she stuck with the theme of this stage, Heavy Bass.
As the old saying goes, give the people what they want.
And she did.
Great vibe. It was a very 60’s/70’s Hippie crowd with short shorts, bell bottoms and bare feet.
Around 6:30PM, the Here stage was overflowing.
For duo Know Good (USA).
This was as close as we got to a band set yesterday as the Houston-based duo (who are cousins) played electric guitar and electric drums.
It was packed.
After our dinner break we visited the Now stage to see DJ Zingara (USA). They should have given her a stool because she was hard to see.
Her set a mix of Trap and Heavy Bass but she was difficult to photograph.
Big crowd for her set.
Although we originally planned to stay later, we called it quits around 10PM. A hot shower to remove all that dust was just minutes away.
After three nights on that “party” ship followed by our full day at Okee, we had finally maxed-out. But it was a super fun event and we have to say, a good time was had by all.