Festival organizers have shared the 2026 event will emphasize a return to the festival's founding principles of community, creativity and environmental stewardship.
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OKEECHOBEE -- The Okeechobee Music Festival returns March 19-22 to Okeechobee's Sunshine Grove. Festival lineup includes The Lumineers, Cage the Elephant, Fisher, GRIZ, Alison Wonderland and more.
The first Okeechobee Music Festival was held in 2016. Over the past decade, the event has undergone some changes and taken some breaks. Festival organizers have shared the 2026 event will emphasize a return to the festival's founding principles of community, creativity and environmental stewardship.
Previous Okeechobee Music & Arts Festivals were held in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Here's a look back:
2014 - Clifford Rosen, owner of the Sundance Trails property in northeastern Okeechobee County, came to the Okeechobee County Commission with an idea to host a music festival in Okeechobee. The Sundance Trails property -- more than 500 acres -- had initially been developed with plans for an equestrian community. Roads were paved and a 14,000-square foot lodge built. But development plans failed due to a drop in the real estate market. Rosen proposed the idea of using the site, about 20 miles from the City of Okeechobee, for a camping festival.
2015 - Soundslinger LLC was founded by Rechulski, established for the primary purpose of producing the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival at what was now called Sunshine Grove in Okeechobee County, Fla. Company principals included Steve Sybesma (CEO), Clifford Rosen (Co-CEO), Paul Peck (COO) and Jim Tobin (Project Manager).
2016 – The first Okeechobee Music Festival, March 3-6, 2016 was a sold out hit! Okeechobee quickly established itself as one of the premiere festivals in the United States. Featuring an incomparable 800-acre festival site made up of large stretches of flat lands and stunning tufts of tropical jungle, the perfect weather met the creative layout, gorgeous lighting, stunning sound systems and remarkable programming to create a weekend for the ages for this new annual spring break event. Mumford & Sons headlined the festival, which included a wide variety of music genres – from Robert Plant, to Hall & Oats, to New Orleans Jazz, to Kendrick Lamar. The festival attracted more than 30,000 fans.
While the festival was a success, Sybesma and Peck left Soundslinger in October 2016, citing "philosophical differences." Soundslinger, LLC announced music and event production industry veterans Kevin Collinsworth, John Conk and Steve Lemon would lead the Soundslinger team.
2017 – Okeechobee Music Festival was held March 2-5, 2017. It was a success with more than 32,000 tickets sold. Kings of Leon headlined the festival.
2018 – The third Okeechobee Music Festival, was held March 1-4, 2018. Headliners included Arcade Fire, Bassnectar, Halsey, Snoop Dog and Travis Scott. This festival featured a mass meditation event called The Big Quiet for which thousands of college students turned off their cell phones.
2019 – After initially asking for -- and receiving -- a permit from Okeechobee County to hold the 2019 festival later in March instead of the first weekend to better align the dates with spring break for most colleges, the festival didn't happen. An email from festival organizers, shared Nov. 30, 2018 explained: “After much consideration and looking at many different options, we have decided to take a fallow year and not hold our annual Okeechobee Fest in 2019. For the past three years, we have witnessed 100,000 strangers from all walks of life come together to our home of Sunshine Grove in Okeechobee, Florida, to live, laugh, listen, sing, dance, learn, create, meditate, downward dog, eat and drink, explore, give back, embrace and live the OMF mantra to Be. Here. Now. Now, that’s love. As we pause for a moment and look back, we are incredibly humbled by the love and spirit you have shown us each and every OMF. This tight-knit community of fans, attendees, musicians, artists and staff that we’ve built together truly belongs to everyone. We are happy and grateful to consider each of you our family. While the OMF portal won’t be opening in 2019, we’re looking to March 2020, and we can’t wait to see you again. Thank you for your love, support and understanding.”
In July 2019, festival organizers shared the news the 2020 festival would be jointly produced by Soundslinger and Insomniac. Insomniac, an American electronic music event promoter founded by Pasquale Rotella, is best-known as the organizer of the Electric Daisy Carnival in Orlando.
2020 – While the Covid-19 pandemic caused other events across the United States to cancel, Okeechobee Music Festival returned, March 5-8, featuring Mumford & Sons, Vampire Weekend and BASSNECTAR. Okeechobee Music Festival was the last big music festival to be held that year as many Americans shunned big public gatherings. The event attracted more than 30,000 music fans.
2021 – As the U.S. continued to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, no music festival was planned.
2022 – Okeechobee Music Festival returned March 3-5, 2022. The lineup included Tame Impala, Porter Robinson, Megan Thee Stallion, Rezz and GRiZ. Okeechobee County approved a permit for the gathering to include up to 40,000 people, including staff. Paid attendance was around 27,000 according to Okeechobee County records.
2023 – Okeechobee Music Festival was held March 2-5, 2023, featuring Odesza, Baby Keen, GRiZ and Earth, Wind & Fire. Festival goers were shocked and saddened by the accidental drowning death of a 26-year-old festival attendee, Stevie Nguyen, who was found submerged in a shallow pond on Saturday. He had last been seen around 11 p.m. on Friday. Nguyen had traveled from Louisiana alone to attend the event.
In August, 2023, festival organizers announced they were taking some time off. Soundslinger shared a message that they were “working hard to keep OMF close to its original roots in a big way and reignite the sparks.”
2024 – In September 2024, festival organizers shared that 2025 would also be a fallow year, sharing the message: “Taking 2024 off allowed us to reassess, reorganize, and reflect,” the statement from Soundslinger explained. “While we had initially planned to return in 2025, we have decided that some extra time will allow us to deliver a better festival experience – an experience that honors our purpose of bringing people together to create lasting memories and friendships.”
2025 - In April 2025, Okeechobee Music Festival announced the return in Sunshine Grove March 19-22, 2026.
2026 - A Feb. 23, 2026 story on EDM.com explained Okeechobee Music Festival is now back under it's original ownership "following a two-year hiatus and a period of Insomniac ownership from 2020 to 2023."
"Now back in the hands of Soundslinger and its founder Julio Santo Domingo, who goes by Rechulski, Okeechobee is operating on the principle of depth rather than commercialization. The festival is being driven by his sense that something essential has been lost along the way," the article explains.
