Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Okeechobee Music Fest reveals PoWoW! lineup
The Okeechobee Music Festival’s signature mashup concert called PoWoW! will again make strange musical bedfellows, this year uniting the talents of Doobie Brothers singer-songwriter and keyboardist Michael McDonald, DJproducer GRiZ, Grammynominated R&B singer Gallant and members of Grammy-winning jazz innovators Snarky Puppy, among others.
PoWow! is designed to set loose the diverse creative ideas of artists of different genres and eras on old-school classics, injecting them with modern music and technology. Yes, you’re supposed to dance to it. Other performers assigned to help include members of the funk quartet Vulfpeck, with their frequent collaborator, R&B singer Antwaun Stanley, and Eric Krasno of Lettuce and Soulive.
Krasno took part in the original PoWoW! at the 2016 Okeechobee Music Festival, when Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Oates of Hall & Oates was the bandleader for a performance that included Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, Grammy-winning R&B vocalist Miguel, saxophonist Kamasi Washington, the Meters’ George Porter Jr. and Zigaboo Modeliste, and DJ Chris Karns.
This year’s PoWoW! takes place 10:15-11:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4, a challenging draw on the schedule, as it overlaps performances on other stages by popular DJ Bassnectar (9:30-10-45 p.m.) and Americana poet Sturgill Simpson (11 p.m.midnight).
The second annual Okeechobee Music Festival takes place north of the lake, on 800 acres at Sunshine Grove, March 2-5. Along with Bassnectar and Simpson, the wildly diverse lineup includes Kings of Leon, Wiz Khalifa, Pretty Lights, Usher and the Roots and Flume. Also onboard: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Sleigh Bells, Rae Sremmurd, Waka Flocka Flame, Mike Posner, the Lumineers, Solange, Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals, Cold War Kids, Snakehips and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Four-day OMF passes are on sale for $279 at OkeechobeeFest.com. Three-day passes are sold out.