While the weather finally turned cold this weekend, the early release of the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival lineup makes the warm delights of spring seem just around the corner. The genre variety of the lineup promises a rich, diverse soundscape fitting to the expansive, multi-environment setting of Sunshine Grove in South Florida, featuring some notable acts we haven’t seen on the festival circuit in a while.
RÜFÜS DU SOL continue their rise as alternative dance heavyweights by headlining the opening night on Thursday, March 5, which also includes Phantoms, a Bassrush party with Caspa, Ivy Lab, Yheti and Huxley Anne, and “Founding Father of House Music” Lil Louis on the Jungle 51 late-night stage.
Bassnectar returns to headline Friday night after playing two sets at Okee 2018. Friday will also pop off with the EDM spectacle of Kaskade, saxy hip-hop and electronic funk from Big Gigantic, engaging jams from Lotus, house tunes from Nora En Pure and the bassy band of BOOGIE T.RIO.
Saturday sees Vampire Weekend – whose indie rock was a festival staple in the late aughts and early 2010’s – take the top slot. Expect HAIM’s trio of sisters to bring soft/pop rock, Tipper to sling wonderfully wonky glitch and trip hop, Sublime with Rome to keep ska punk alive, Blood Orange to deliver deliciously smooth R&B, and Bob Moses to captivate with soothing alt-rock and deep house. There will be underground bass from G Jones and space bass from LSDREAM, while the PoWoW featuring special guest performances (TBA) will be a notably unique draw.
After years of missing the folk rock of Mumford & Sons, I’ll finally be able to catch them in a headlining Sunday performance. OMF 2020 is also the first-announced return performance of melodic-psychedelic experimenters Glass Animals, who have been on hiatus since their drummer was in a life-threatening accident in mid-2018. Alison Wonderland will dive into electropop, future bass and trap, Machine Gun Kelly will fire out hip-hop and rap rock, and CharlestheFirst will get weird with trippy bass. Jungle 51 will close out strong with the immersive techno of Ellen Allien, industrial electro from Louisahhh and groovy house from Maya Jane Coles.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, 10/18, at 10 a.m. ET. GA passes start at $249 before fees and GA passes with car camping start at $298 before fees. Payment plans are available with $19.99 initial deposits. Check out the full lineup below and we hope you’ll enter the Portal to Okeechobee with us in what ought to be one of the coolest experience-driven festivals of 2020!
