OKEECHOBEE- The Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival appears to be teasing a 2026 return to the Sunshine Grove. 

The music festival posted a short video of a sunset at the festival grounds in Okeechobee with the numbers 2026 appearing in the clouds. The caption to the post read “Something special...”. 

In addition, the festival has been asking fans to sign up for their monthly newsletter, saying they have big news coming. 

The music festival was last held in Okeechobee in 2023, with headliners like Earth, Wind and Fire, Lil Yachty, and Turnstile. A few months after the 2023 festival, organizers announced that they would take 2024 as a fallow year, with plans to bring it back stronger and better. 

But in September of 2024 organizers announced they wanted to take extra time to deliver a better festival experience, and that Okeechobee Mustic Festival would miss 2025 as well. 

“Rest assured, we, the Okee OG's, are working hard behind the scenes to curate a colorful lineup that blends nostalgic favorites with emerging artists, crafting unique experiences that fully immerse you in the spirit of Okeechobee,” read the statement announcing the festival would skip 2025. 

Now, with the 2026 teases and promises of “big news”, it seems the two-year long break between festivals may finally be coming to an end. 

The camping festival, which draws attendance of 30,000 to 40,000 fans to the 600-acre Sunshine Grove property in northeast Okeechobee County, has a history of starts and stops.  

The first Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival was held March 4-6, 2016, produced by Soundslinger. The festival was originally planned for 2015, but organizers delayed it a year in order to have the time to make it really special. The first year lineup included Mumford & Sons, Kendrick Lamar, Robert Plant, Odesza, Skrillex, Bassnectar, Hall & Oates and the Avett Brothers as well as Preservation Hall Jazz Band.  

Annual events followed in 2017 and 2018. In November 2018, it was announced the festival would go on “hiatus.” OMF returned in 2020, now partnered with Insomniac, the organizers of Electric Daisy Carnival. The 2020 OMF was the last big music festival of the year before large public events were shut down due to the covid pandemic.