Wrap Up from The Grove: Inside Okeechobee Music & Arts Fest

Feature photo Courtesy of Adi Adinayev

Just like that, another year of Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival has come and gone. There were a ton of special moments and highlights of this years festival. From ODESZA‘s first festival performance in over 4 years, to a new album performance from Lil Yachty, and let’s not forget to mention the best surprise of all… A POWOW! featuring The Free Nationals, Earth Wind & Fire, Big Boi, Goose, Break Science and surprise guest Anderson Paak. Yeah, you just read that right! It doesn’t just stop there though. Below are some of my favorite sets & personal experiences during the time spent in the portal.

THURSDAY

Arriving at the festival Thursday morning was thrilling! You could just feel the excitement and anticipation in the air as people are bustling to and from will call to the venue to set up camp for the weekend. To kick things off, day 1 of the festival started off on the heavier side of the musical spectrum. With sets from Break Science, Daily Bread, Memba, and Peekaboo, it was an absolute bass music delight. A very telling and strong kickoff to what was to come for the rest of the weekend.

FRIDAY

Without a doubt, this was easily my favorite day of the festival. Most of my anticipated acts of the weekend landed on Friday. To start off, we headed out to Aquachobee beach & caught quite a few DnB sets which was a whole vibe! It was pretty hot so we made sure to bring our chairs, umbrellas, and most importantly, coolers! As the sun went down, that’s when we started getting into some of my favorite sets of the day. Imanu, It Hz (Jon Casey x Chee), Lil Yachty, & Florida hero, CELO all CRUSHED their sets. As mentioned before, it was also ODESZA‘s first set in 4 years and it was everything we’d all been waiting for and then some. Additionally, there was meditation in the morning at Yogachobee, and a shuffle meetup!

Photo Courtesy of Taylor Regulski

SATURDAY

Although Friday was my favorite day of the festival, Saturday definitely took the cake for the biggest party vibes. Earth Wind & Fire, into Big Boi, then closing out with Griz, was the perfect curation we didn’t know we needed. Other incredible sets that day included Justin Martin opening the jungle. Before then, I’ve never been in the jungle while the sun was still out. Was also super stoked to catch the Boogie T .Rio earlier in the day for some jam vibes.

SUNDAY

Lastly, we come to Sunday. The last day of the festival. I always wake up on the last day feeling extremely grateful for the weekend I just experienced, but also sad because of the realization that it’s coming to an end. Sunday was a great day to close out on nonetheless. The LSDream presents: Lightcode was really cool to experience in the morning. With it being Sunday, I figured there probably wouldn’t be as many people there, but I was so wrong. It was actually really cool to see so many people still come together in the morning after a very long weekend for some sound healing.

Most of the acts I planned on seeing that day were at the Here stage, so we were able to hangout without doing too much back and forth. Again, a really good curated stage with the set times. LYNY, Tiedye Ky, SNBRN, Supertask, & Chris Lorenzo were all incredible, high energy sets. Plus, we got a surprise Lab Group Incendia set. The Griz b2b LSDream slot was the perfect way to close out the weekend.

All in all, Okeechobee never misses for me. This festival always has so much to offer and brings it every time. It leaves me wanting more and counting down the days till next year. What were some of your favorite sets of the weekend? Who would you like to see on next years lineup? Would love to hear your thoughts below in the comments. Can’t wait to see you next year!