Okeechobee Music Festival - Tropical Disco Bubble Bath with Friends

 

Written By Matthew Demarko and Elizabeth Windham

Photographed by Matthew Demarko

I would like to say this with emphasis: Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival is not a festival with different stages - it’s a universe with different worlds. 

The festival had just started, and the immensity of grounds, lit with every variety of light and color, traveled far back into the horizon of our vision. We were just getting the lay of the land; sure, our tent was up, but the camera was still back in the car. This was only Thursday. We wanted a gentle introduction. We got a maelstrom of color. We wanted to understand the map. Instead the map was engulfing us. 

This is what they mean by “Enter the Portal”

Okeechobee was put out into the world with the principle (and naming of their stages) “Be. Here. Now.” From there, the parts of it have become aligned with this value.

The Portal of Okeechobee Music Festival isn’t just a transformational leap of faith, it is a unique realm that offers what only a few of the crown jewel festivals can: a “radiate positivity” attitude set to the backdrop of an exotic, natural landscape filled with music and art of every genre. The backbone of friendly neighbors gives the festival its heart; the tropical grove, palm trees and beach give it its natural spirit, and the varied music (with a heavy EDM lean) give it a wild spirit. 

Thus is the creature of Okee. It’s the return of the good vibes.

Only Electric Forest seems to be able to match these qualities (Bonnaroo is a close contender but the flat Tennessee landscape leaves some natural elements to be desired). And then there are some magical fests like EDC Vegas + EDC Orlando that truly come alive at night, but here in Sunshine Grove, the beauty of the daytime is equal to the delights of the nighttime lights.

Needless to say, this is a special place, and when you enter, you’re going to have a special experience. 

Blessing the expansive campgrounds (and we mean expansive) are canals and shady groves throughout. It’s a good thing it’s pretty, cause you might be walking through it for awhile. You wouldn’t be alone if you got lost. Many participants we talked to admitted to walking the opposite direction of the festival when they wanted to go in. That’s how much light and music was everywhere. Never-the-less, coming in from almost any area of the campgrounds you’d be greeted by the town center of the affair, comedicaly and cutely named Chobeewobee Village. This is the first world.

Greeted with “Happy Okee” shouted by colorful humans dressed up in their most sparkly rainbow braids, decorative technicolor glasses and crystal necklaces, Chobeewobee is the welcome center of the festival.

The unexpected name hints at unexpected finds nestled in every corner of this particular world. There is a Tea Lounge and Bamboo Garden where art and mindfulness workshops are held. There’s a Wellness Sanctuary where guests can experience sound healing, massages, body painting, and essential oil therapy.

There’s Yogachobee, which has been an important part of the Village forever and was packed every morning with people gathering to recenter themselves and nurture their physical bodies.

Angela, a blacklight body painter in the wellness temple, spoke of the desire to bask in the pleasure of people watching while enjoying every present moment.

““There are millions of reflections and energies to absorb”.”
— Angela, body painter

You couldn’t miss the massive new angelic Daniel Popper statue, presiding over the Village as resident Goddess. But you could miss the Bamboo Garden, or HeadCount’s Participation Row, but only because you’d be so overwhelmed, not because you’d want to.

HeadCount’s Participation Row is a compliment to the surrounding spiritual transformational work in that they deal with the physical world, fighting for change, registering Okeebeings to vote, and being a masthead to those who want to contribute more than just raging. 

The Row itself consisted of seven nonprofits all local to the community of Okeechobee. By completing mindful and artistic activities at each booth, participants could fill out a Passport enrolling them in a chance to win ethically made, fair-trade chocolate bars from Tony’s Chocolonely and an insane custom Okeechobee guitar.

The non-profits were as varied as Martha’s House - a place of refuge for survivors of sexual assault, to Vets helping Vets - who were offering burn ceremonies in which people could write down their ailments and singe them away to ash.

Overall, Chobeewobee is the epicenter that houses Okeechobee’s transformational flourishes: spiritual workshops and artistic activities give the festival a profound depth sorely lacking from most festivals. But don’t confuse this with being the “boring” side of the festival. Activities are as ranged and raucous as Drag Bingo to Drishti Beats Yoga, a violin and soothfully voice guided yoga experience. 

For those in touch with the more ethereal realms of their existence, or in tune with the cosmic nature of festival synchronicities, this world is a sacred and appreciated one. 

But there are worlds within worlds here as well. Which kind of Bazaar do you prefer ‘cause there’s two: a classic vendor village huddled under the same circus style tent from EDC Orlando, or the Grand Artique Bazaar, where you don’t buy stuff, you trade for it, all while blissfully drowning my music sung from a gypsy stage.

Our premiere artist of the fest in this locale was Jen in the Right Light, which set the Artique ablaze with their Thursday night set. 

With cunning and playful merchants, floor pillows and enough palm trees to house 1000 hammocks, the Artique Bazaar mini-world was a beautiful bohemian mecca.

The next world most likely to call to your wandering heart is Aquachobee, a sundrenched beach cove where the party starts early and goes late. For many, and us personally, Aqauchobee is the world with the highest gravitational pull. A beach party populated by artful spirits of festival folk, this place has EVERYTHING. One of the reasons it has everything? Aquachobee exists outside the rigid confines of security, acting more as a campground extension with proper stages than an inner realm of the festival. 

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SLAP THE BAG?

The official beverage of Aquachobee is bagged wine, and people are sharing the Dionysian potion every direction you look, the wine dripping across giggly chins. Laughter is inevitable on the sands of Aquachobee. Here the inner child loves to play, splash, twirl and dance in the water; bounce on blow up couches and chillbo baggins, fall to the ground with arms spread wide after cartwheeling, practice balancing pineapples on your head, blowing bubbles, and taking rides on the ferris wheel. 

Silly costumes and playful antics give it a mischievous Spring Break vibe. Water cleanses those willing to take a cool but refreshing plunge while flow toys reflect the sun with their perpetual motion. And the music…as Outkast said “it all blends perfectly...” And then sunset hits.

Sunset here is a nightly tradition. The sweet Florida sunshine sets perfectly over the water, casting an amber glow that blankets a beach so well. Combine all this with music, and you have something I’ve never seen replicated at another festival. 

Blowing the collective beachy minds of everyone in attendance was the Of the Trees sunset performance on Friday, where his pulsing minimalism hypnotized the masses. He packed the beach to the brim, showcasing a skyrocketing reputation for being a can’t miss experience.

But just because the sun sets doesn’t mean that Aquachobee is done. It just switches which dimension it inhabits.

You can stay at Aquachobee all day and night (and we did three out of the four days) but there’s so much to explore that eventually the call of the wild will hit you. 

Heading back into the inner sanctum (and unfortunately through security) the Here Stage, with it’s fiery chromatic vaulted canopy, would be the nearest world. A welcome shaded addition ever since Insomniac took over two years ago, the Here Stage seemed to become the new defacto EDM powerhouse of the festival.

Every night we sought  its sanctuary, seeing Four Tet, Manic Focus, Troyboi, and closing the festival Here was the queen CloZee. 

Bubbles erupted often under the tent, cascading down through the maze of lasers and lights, as if we were in a disco ball carnival bubble bath with all our friends. The elegant flowing tent covering and palm tree playgrounds were a blessing to all present dancers. By day, the tented ceiling erupted in the same color spectrum as the sun, acting as a perfect picture halo for anyone underneath. At night, the fire dome transformed into a city of light. This stage was a MOOD, so visually varied that our jaws drop thinking about it. 

A sunset highlight here was Kaivon’s musical mix of the words “...right at this moment you don't remember your past, you don't have to; let's pretend you don't have one. There is no past, there is only the now”. This synchronicity with the essence of “Be Here Now” seemed to further integrate itself into our feet, and the pleasure of truly feeling the power of “Here” shot through our entire being. 

Transformed, if you exited from the back, you’d be back in Chobeewobee. If you exited to stage right, the world of The Grove and its possibilities open to you. 

Now, the planners of Okeechobee have a genius sense of humor in how they prepare you for transitioning into the world of The Grove. As if saying “You need a musical palette cleanser” tribal horns and ethnic instruments erupt out of the speakers as you walk under the moss filled palms. It’s as bizarre as it is playful, and after being shocking becomes strangely appreciated. This environmental hallway narrows like a birth canal until you’re finally born anew into the shaded bliss of The Grove.

The Grove is named such for being completely encircled in massive trees. The mystical moss hanging from the tree-tops gives a special quality to this oasis. Especially when the lasers pierce them. 

Housing a pair of stages we might call big and little sisters, both the “Now Stage” and the “Be Stage” call The Grove home. The little sister Now is closer to the campgrounds, and has the unique beauty marks of climbable trees along the right side as you approach.

Chiller by day and more relaxing by night, Now was a beautiful recluse from some of the raging madness that could engulf Be. Our most tear-inducing moment came from watching Jai Wolf close out his set Saturday night. There was a portal of rainbow love that opened up each night as these musicians took us deeper into the corners of our hearts with their songs. 

While Aquachobee is the sunset star, the Grove, especially closer to the Be Stage, has a hazy glow during magic hour that we found a new appreciation for this year. 

And for a stage called “Be” it certainly fit the name. Its chameleon existence housed everything from Rezz to Megan Thee Stallion to Tame Impala, with the ability to be any genre. And it certainly could be a wild time.

Let’s talk about those sets.

Rezz, who we photographed headlining multiple sets last year, started the Thursday night pre-party with the heart-stopping hardness that would come to populate the main stage all weekend. But after her radiating black, red and white spirals, the stage became a beacon of rainbows. Tame Impala blew the collective festival’s hive mind with their custom circular light halo crowing the stage for Friday night’s show. They were the only set that the photo pit was closed for, speaking to their ascension as artists and what a truly unique experience their festival sets are to behold. 

Then, the next night, Griz took the reign of Okeechobee King, showcasing his own flavor of light rainbows and whipping the crowd into the wildest frenzy we saw all weekend. The moment was not lost on him. Tearing up on stage during a sax solo, the immensity of where he was, two years after playing the same stage during sunset pre-pandemic, took hold of him and the crowd collectively. On his Instagram he summed up the experience:

“Well, okeechobee was really fkn awesome. It’s like a tiki rave where everyone feels like your friend from school or sumthin. Undefeated vibes.”
— Griz, instagram March 11 2022

We had hearts in our eyes by the time his set was over.

Usually we’d end our articles with the main stage and how the festival headliners closed it out, but the thing about Okee is that it doesn’t end there. The night rages far into the twilight. So many worlds still exist to explore, and the later and stranger it gets, the more quintessentially Okee it seems.

Incendia, the notorious fire-breathing stage, comes alive at night on the opposite end of Aquachobee cove. It loves to flare its golden towers of fire, calling all to come into its creative center. No matter how many times you attend the fire ceremonies, you can never be quite prepared for the blast of warmth that this dragon of a stage emits. Equally as impressive whether up close or viewing it from across the water, late night sets here seem like if Heaven and Hell switched weather.

If you’re looking for a bit of a more closed, mysterious world, the bass-thumping Jungle 51 is a visually mystifying house-haven enclosed in its own mini-grove. With some sets lasting up to seven (seven!) hours and going until 7am, it could be seen and heard from afar (most of the campgrounds I’m sure). Glowing gumdrops floated amongst the trees while writhing wire creatures climbed their trunks. 

This is a late night dance-till-you-drop vortex. With the biggest and most utilized disco balls of the whole festival, Jungle 51 is an alien planet disco sanctum.

You could see all this, all of these worlds in one day, and still explore the next day feeling as if it’s a completely new landscape. Okeechobee is massive. It’s something that no article or photo walkthrough could encapsulate. We haven’t even talked about Frick Frack Black Jack, the cashless item-exchange clown casino world. Or the Juke Joint, the stage revolving around the casino. Or the renegade stages. Or the hundreds of little gems tucked everywhere we missed because you could never see it all. We’ve been scrolling Instagram all week post-fest going “Where was that?”

So much more than just a festival, Okeechobee is an experience to be had for those willing to take the leap. You come out of the Portal different every time. Now the question is - will you join us on Aquachobee next year? Cause we’ll be there. With the wine.

 
Music FestivalCat MartinezInsomniac, Okeechobee, 20222 Comments