HOT TIME IN OKEECHOBEE
The Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire to play Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival.
The 2018 Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival on Tuesday announced a pop-leaning lineup that will feature Arcade Fire, Travis Scott, Bassnectar, Halsey, Khalid, Leon Bridges, Foster the People, Thievery Corporation and the Flaming Lips.
Four-day general-admission passes cost $269 (plus taxes and fees) for the festival, which takes place March 1-4 in Okeechobee. The Eternal Sunshine VIP Experience costs $699 (plus taxes and fees). To purchase passes, and for information on car and RV parking costs, visit OkeechobeeFest.com/ tickets.
Several of the acts coming to Okeechobee were nominated for Grammy Awards on Tuesday. Khalid was nominated for five Grammys, including Best New Artist, Arcade Fire received a nod in the Alternative Album category and Travis Scott was a featured performer on two Grammy-nominated songs
Other top acts among dozens of performances at the 2018 Okeechobee Music Festival will include Zeds Dead, Slightly Stoopid, Big Gigantic, STS9, Lettuce, Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles, Son Little, Judah and the Lion, and Hiss Golden Messenger. Locals include Carol City rapper Denzel Curry and the Magic City Hippies.
Performers for the wee-hours “superstar mashup” known as PoWoW! will be named at a later date. A slate of EDM performers also is expected to be announced soon.
The Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival has been a sell-out both years since its 2016 debut, drawing more than 30,000 visitors each year to Sunshine Grove, 800 acres of oldoak woods, grassy fields and lakes north of Lake Okeechobee.
Along with its carefully manicured grounds, art, yoga, meditation and holistic workshops, Okeechobee put itself on the national music-festival map with ambitious booking of a diverse parade of performers in rap, rock, EDM and Americana that embraced multiple demographics and tastes.
Arcade Fire, which played a sold-out Watsco Center at the University of Miami in September, will fill the Okeechobee woods with glittery dance grooves from their latest album, “Everything Now.” After her breakout on the Chainsmokers collaboration “Closer,” Halsey’s 2017 album, “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom,” yielded the hits singles “Now or Never” and “Bad at Love.”
Avant-garde rapper Travis Scott’s platinumselling albums “Rodeo” and “Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight” included hit singles “Antidote” and “Goosebumps.” He’s also famous for dating Kylie Jenner.
This has been a breakout year for 19-year-old singer Khalid, whose platinum album “American Teen” includes the hits “Location” and “Young, Dumb & Broke.” Old-soul R&B singer Leon Bridges’ resume includes the ubiquitous hit “Coming Home,” along with “Smooth Sailing” and “Better Man.”
For information, visit OkeechobeeFest.com.