Festies
Festies Podcast, a music festival podcast
Festie (noun): A music loving adventurer who flourishes in the vibrant energy of festivals. Known for dancing to any beat, making new friends at every stage, and offering unwavering support to fellow festies in their crew. A true festie views every festival as a fresh opportunity to immerse in the moment and create lasting memories.
Festies is our backstage pass to the wonderful world of music festivals. We're Vanessa and Sunny, lifelong best friends who've explored 30+ different festivals between us. We've hit up festivals over 100 times combined. 18 of those, side by side. We cover everything from Coachella and Bonnaroo to Outside Lands and beyond. Think of us as your go to source for festival stories, tips, and all the glittery chaos in between.
We share advice, chat with the coolest folks in the industry, and spotlight hidden gem festivals you need to know about. From reggae to rock, EDM to indie, and hip hop to country, we dive into the music, vibes, and people who make festivals magical. We also highlight innovative products and festival hacks crafted by the community, because the best ideas always come from fellow festies.
Whether you're a first timer or a seasoned pro, we've got your back. So grab your hydration pack, lace up your comfiest shoes, and tune in, because the festival adventure doesn't stop when the music does.
Let's keep the vibe alive, one episode at a time.
Festies
Ep. 39 Okeechobee 2026 Lineup Breakdown & Reaction
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The Okeechobee 2026 lineup dropped, and we are all in. If the stars align, this will be our new fest for 2026. With its stacked reggae presence, eclectic mix of artists, and a setting actually built for comfort—shade, hammocks, and the iconic AquaChobee beach—it shot straight to the top of our list. Join us as we break down the lineup and get to know the festival behind it.
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Thanks for listening to Festies! Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at @festiespodcast. Festies is hosted by Vanessa and Sunny, engineered by Clark. If you're enjoying the show, a rating/review means a lot and helps other festies find us!
Picking Okeechobee 2026
SunnyHey Vanessa?
VanessaYeah, Sunny?
SunnyWhat do you call two best friends that love music festivals?
VanessaHmm. I guess you'd call them... FESTIES
SunnyWelcome back, Festies. I'm very excited for this episode, so can we just jump right into it?
VanessaYes.
Media Dreams And Reggae Hype
SunnyOkay. The Okeechobee 2026 lineup is here, and we have decided this is our festival for 2026.
VanessaAlso, I want to say that I hate you because I literally
SunnyAw
VanessaI'm just kidding, but I literally had just told you Ed and I are not doing anything big
SunnyOh
Vanessauntil we move. And then what does she do literally days later? She texts me this fucking lineup. Oh, and she goes, hold on, what did you say?
SunnyIt's our job for the podcast.
VanessaBut she texts me this lineup and she goes, Dirty heads, dot dot dot dot dot. Like she's like trying to convince Ed.
SunnyOh yeah.
VanessaEd has always wanted to see them at a festival that's not a reggae festival, you know?
SunnyYeah.
VanessaBecause they're like one of the big headliners for for Thursday.
SunnyYes.
VanessaMy response, oh wow, I would go to this.
SunnyI know.
VanessaAnd then Sunny goes, we're like dot dot dot down, I think. Like, yeah, we're fucking down.
SunnyDuh.
VanessaBut it's in March 19th to the 22nd. Is that correct?
SunnyYes.
Vanessa2026, obviously.
SunnyAnd we just applied for media, so please send us good vibes. That would be dope if we could get in like that. And even though we don't know every single artist on the lineup, there were enough names that jumped out at us that we were immediately sold. I gotta say, I did feel guilty sending it to you because it did cross my mind that you just said we're not doing anything. But I didn't want to not send it because
VanessaI'm just kidding. I'm not actually mad at you.
SunnyAlong with Dirty Heads on Thursday, it's like a reggae day.
VanessaNo, the whole weekend is
Sunnyand Clark loves reggae as well. So it's a good festival because there's a lot of music the boys like.
VanessaYes. Okay, so dirty heads are a big headliner. I'm gonna go ahead and assume that Ganja White night is also reggae, but I could be wrong.
SunnyWhy?
VanessaBut on Friday there's denim. On
Sunnywe're going through all the reggae acts?
VanessaI'm just looking at the reggae acts that are popping out to me for the whole weekend. And then the movement is on there on Sunday. So it's a lot of reggae, which is really nice to see because I feel like there's always like not enough reggae representation at music festivals.
SunnyTotally. Yeah, we've talked about this before.
VanessaYeah. And Sister Nancy, how do we forget her?
SunnySister Nancy. Yes. Okeechobee Music Festival is in Florida. Have you been to Florida?
VanessaI've never been to Florida. That's another thing Ed said too. He's like, well, and you've never been to Florida, so we have
The Boys Catch the Okee Bug
Vanessato go.
SunnyOkay. Yeah. If the guys are on board, we don't feel as guilty about it.
VanessaRight. It's not us forcing them to go to another festival with us.
SunnyYeah. They want to go.
VanessaYeah.
SunnyI think that's what I also texted you. I said, Does Ed want to go? And I said, keyword want.
VanessaYes, you did say that.
SunnyYeah.
VanessaUh yeah, before I left to come here, I was like, Do you want to go over this lineup with me and see if you know anyone else? And he was like, sure. And then we were watching YouTube videos, and he just like put on Okeechobee videos on YouTube.
SunnyOh man.
VanessaAnd he was like, Wow, this looks sick.
SunnyYeah.
VanessaBecause it doesn't look very crowded. There's a lot of trees, a lot of shades, and after coming from Austin City Limits,
Sunnyright
VanessaWe know how important that is.
SunnyTotally.
VanessaThey have so many cool looking areas for stages, and you can just put up hammocks everywhere, too. So you know Ed loves a good hammock. So he is like so down for this.
SunnyDid we ever tell the story about you guys falling off the hammock? At Bonnaroo? Not that there's much to the story.
VanessaI don't know if we did.
SunnyOther than they fell off the hammock.
VanessaWe were gonna sleep in the hammock that night and we were like all cozy, and then all of a sudden it just snapped and we hurt both of our tailbones.
SunnyIt's not funny, but
Vanessait's funny now.
SunnyIt's funny.
VanessaActually, it was funny then too.
SunnyAnyways, can I give a quick background on Okeechobee?
Okeechobee’s History
VanessaYes, go ahead.
SunnyThe first one happened back in 2016, and the headliners were impressive. There was Skrillix, Kendrick Lamar, Mumford and Sons, Bass Nectar, Robert Plant, and Odessa.
VanessaWow.
SunnySo they came out the gate strong. They had the festival again in 2017 and 2018, and then the 2019 one got canceled. It came back in 2020, and that's when Insomniac took over. That's the same production company that does EDC. And then Okeechobee 2020 ended up being one of the very last major festivals to happen before everything shut down because it's in March.
VanessaYeah.
SunnyAfter that, it returned for 2022 and 2023. And then I guess it just kind of disappeared for 2024 and 2025. And then now here we are gearing up for 2026. But Insomniac is no longer involved. And this year's event is being produced and promoted by SoundSlinger, which is an independent live events company. So it feels like a fresh chapter for Okeechobee.
VanessaThat makes a lot of sense because everything we were looking online was like 2023 and 2022. And I was like, what about last year? Like, so it didn't happen. We made these friends at Bonnrooo that had talked about how they'd been to OkeeChobee and they loved it.
SunnyYeah, I've heard about this festival a lot, and I kind of just took it off my radar because Florida is the farthest we could possibly go in the States.
Lineup Reaction
SunnyShould we go over the lineup?
VanessaPlease.
SunnyThursday, Cage the Elephant, Dirty Heads, and Knock 2. Friday, we have Griz and T-Pain. Saturday, we have Fisher and L C D Sound System. And then Sunday we have the Lumineers.
VanessaI've been really into the Lumineers lately.
SunnyLately?
VanessaYeah, I never used to be, to be honest.
SunnyWow.
VanessaBut I also love L C D Sound System.
SunnyMm-hmm. I know you do.
VanessaAnd uh Big Wild on Thursday is crazy. I love them. Uh him, I should say. I love him. I saw him at Red Rocks.
SunnyOh yeah.
VanessaLike three years ago, four years ago now.
SunnyWe saw Big Wild at um Same Same But Different.
VanessaOh really?
SunnyYeah. He was amazing. As always. Griz has another Chasing the Golden Hour set. He had one of those at Bonnaroo and we missed it.
VanessaOh yeah.
SunnyThat's a regret of mine. We should have been over there.
VanessaYeah. Good. You get your redemption.
SunnyYes.
VanessaOh, I didn't even see Japanese breakfast on here. Rainbow Kitten Surprise, I'm actually excited for because at Austin City Limits, I was like so dead and tired when they were on, and I had to go back to the chairs, which was kind of far away from when they're where they were playing. We could still hear them, but I wasn't close and in it, so I'd like to see them again.
SunnyYou also get your redemption. Young the Giant is on this lineup.
VanessaOh my god, I forgot about that. Oh I haven't seen Young the Giant in years. And Flip Turn.
SunnyYes.
VanessaWhich I was supposed to see, I think at Bonnaroo this year, and it obviously didn't happen.
SunnyI missed out at Outside Lands this year, so that also stood out to me.
VanessaAnd then Big Boi from OutKast.
SunnyOh hell yeah.
VanessaAmazing. Yeah, it's great. And these are basically the only names we know. So there's still so much good music to look into. And I'm actually gonna do my homework right this time. But then there's a problem with doing too much homework because then you like want to see everybody.
SunnyI know.
VanessaAnd you can't
Sunnyafter Austin City Limits, I was just like, I need to not do as much homework.
VanessaYeah.
SunnyBecause for festies, my focus has shifted from just the lineup to like the whole festival and wanting to get to know the festival as an event. You know?
VanessaOh, and goth babe. I keep oh my gosh, Goth Babe, Big X tha plug.
What Stood Out in the Vlogs
SunnyI know.
VanessaThe biggest, the largest. Oh my gosh.
SunnyI did end up watching a lot of vlogs on YouTube. Did you?
VanessaFor Okeechobee?
SunnyYeah.
VanessaWe watched two right before I came.
SunnyI noticed there's a lot of sunrise sets and
VanessaOh really?
SunnyYeah. Which looks amazing. I don't know if I'd ever get up for a sunrise set, but and then oh, Aqua Chobee. Did you see that?
VanessaI kept hearing them mention Aqua Chobee. I don't really know what it was. I thought it was just a stage.
SunnyIt's basically a little beach and hangout area in the middle of the festival. People like you know swim, lay out, listen to the music.
VanessaOh, sick.
SunnyThat looked really cool. And I also just noticed the community vibe even through the vlogs.
VanessaTo me, it felt a lot of like when I watched some of the ones from Same Same but different. I feel like it kind of gave that same vibe, like super chill. And kind of like Bonnoroo too, in a sense where everyone's like a community and there for each other.
SunnyYeah.
VanessaIt seems like a really cool one.
SunnyAre you gonna be in Iowa already?
VanessaI don't know.
SunnyOkay.
VanessaI thought about it because I was like, maybe we should just move early March so then we can drive there, but it's still like 21 hours. Yeah, I like another. Ed was like, I think it's like 30 hours. I was like, no, it's only 21, but still that's a big trek.
SunnyHeck yeah. Yeah, it's 48 from here.
VanessaOh god.
SunnySo flying it is. Um so we're very excited for Okeechobee. I'm glad we found our new festival.
VanessaI just wish it wasn't so early in the year, but
SunnyI know
Vanessabecause like I'm already stressing out about it.
SunnyYeah. Oh no, no,
Vanessabecause it's coming up.
Travel Math And Ticket Stress
VanessaNo, I just mean because like, are we camping? Are we staying at a hotel? We have to get flight soon. Where do we fly into? Like, I haven't looked at any of that, and I feel like it's around the corner.
SunnyIt's tomorrow. I had to stop myself from going down that rabbit hole the day we found it because I was like, I'm gonna stress out Clark.
VanessaYeah. You were like, what are we doing? Tickets go up today. I was like, I can't even think about this today. I'm not we're not buying tickets today.
SunnyThe only reason why I had said that is because they were like, ticket prices increase tonight.
VanessaYeah.
SunnyWe didn't buy tickets either. Because we are gonna get in as media.
VanessaManifesting,
Sunnyputting that into the universe. Uh since we've never been to Okeechobee,
Community Help And Sign-Off
Sunnywe would love some help from our listeners. If there's anybody who has been to Okeechobee, please DM us. Let us know your experiences at this festival.
VanessaPlease help me I'm poor.
SunnyYeah, please buy our ticket.
VanessaNo, don't do that.
SunnyI think that's that's all I got for Okeechobee.
VanessaAll right. We'll be back with more later on. Okay, Festies, join us at Okeechobee next year. Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Festies Podcast. Leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcasts, and we'll catch you on the next one. Bye.
SunnyBye.