Festies

Ep. 39: Okeechobee 2026 Lineup Breakdown & Reaction

• Sunny Balopole, Vanessa Gutierrez, Clark Lawson • Episode 39

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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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Sunny:

Hey Vanessa?

Vanessa:

Yeah, Sunny?

Sunny:

What do you call two best friends that love music festivals?

Vanessa:

Hmm. I guess you'd call them... FESTIES

Sunny:

Welcome back, Festies. I'm very excited for this episode, so can we just jump right into it?

Vanessa:

Yes.

Sunny:

Okay. The Okeechobee 2026 lineup is here, and we have decided this is our festival for 2026.

Vanessa:

Also, I want to say that I hate you because I literally

Sunny:

Aw

Vanessa:

I'm just kidding, but I literally had just told you Ed and I are not doing anything big

Sunny:

Oh

Vanessa:

until 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?

Sunny:

It's our job for the podcast.

Vanessa:

But she texts me this lineup and she goes, Dirty heads, dot dot dot dot dot. Like she's like trying to convince Ed.

Sunny:

Oh yeah.

Vanessa:

Ed has always wanted to see them at a festival that's not a reggae festival, you know?

Sunny:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

Because they're like one of the big headliners for for Thursday.

Sunny:

Yes.

Vanessa:

My response, oh wow, I would go to this.

Sunny:

I know.

Vanessa:

And then Sunny goes, we're like dot dot dot down, I think. Like, yeah, we're fucking down.

Sunny:

Duh.

Vanessa:

But it's in March 19th to the 22nd. Is that correct?

Sunny:

Yes.

Vanessa:

2026, obviously.

Sunny:

And 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

Vanessa:

I'm just kidding. I'm not actually mad at you.

Sunny:

Along with Dirty Heads on Thursday, it's like a reggae day.

Vanessa:

No, the whole weekend is

Sunny:

and Clark loves reggae as well. So it's a good festival because there's a lot of music the boys like.

Vanessa:

Yes. 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.

Sunny:

Why?

Vanessa:

But on Friday there's denim. On

Sunny:

we're going through all the reggae acts?

Vanessa:

I'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.

Sunny:

Totally. Yeah, we've talked about this before.

Vanessa:

Yeah. And Sister Nancy, how do we forget her?

Sunny:

Sister Nancy. Yes. Okeechobee Music Festival is in Florida. Have you been to Florida?

Vanessa:

I'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 to go.

Sunny:

Okay. Yeah. If the guys are on board, we don't feel as guilty about it.

Vanessa:

Right. It's not us forcing them to go to another festival with us.

Sunny:

Yeah. They want to go.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Sunny:

I think that's what I also texted you. I said, Does Ed want to go? And I said, keyword want.

Vanessa:

Yes, you did say that.

Sunny:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

Uh 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.

Sunny:

Oh man.

Vanessa:

And he was like, Wow, this looks sick.

Sunny:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

Because it doesn't look very crowded. There's a lot of trees, a lot of shades, and after coming from Austin City Limits,

Sunny:

right

Vanessa:

We know how important that is.

Sunny:

Totally.

Vanessa:

They 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.

Sunny:

Did we ever tell the story about you guys falling off the hammock? At Bonnaroo? Not that there's much to the story.

Vanessa:

I don't know if we did.

Sunny:

Other than they fell off the hammock.

Vanessa:

We 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.

Sunny:

It's not funny, but

Vanessa:

it's funny now.

Sunny:

It's funny.

Vanessa:

Actually, it was funny then too.

Sunny:

Anyways, can I give a quick background on Okeechobee?

Vanessa:

Yes, go ahead.

Sunny:

The 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.

Vanessa:

Wow.

Sunny:

So 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.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Sunny:

After 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.

Vanessa:

That 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.

Sunny:

Yeah, 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. Should we go over the lineup?

Vanessa:

Please.

Sunny:

Thursday, 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.

Vanessa:

I've been really into the Lumineers lately.

Sunny:

Lately?

Vanessa:

Yeah, I never used to be, to be honest.

Sunny:

Wow.

Vanessa:

But I also love L C D Sound System.

Sunny:

Mm-hmm. I know you do.

Vanessa:

And uh Big Wild on Thursday is crazy. I love them. Uh him, I should say. I love him. I saw him at Red Rocks.

Sunny:

Oh yeah.

Vanessa:

Like three years ago, four years ago now.

Sunny:

We saw Big Wild at um Same Same But Different.

Vanessa:

Oh really?

Sunny:

Yeah. He was amazing. As always. Griz has another Chasing the Golden Hour set. He had one of those at Bonnaroo and we missed it.

Vanessa:

Oh yeah.

Sunny:

That's a regret of mine. We should have been over there.

Vanessa:

Yeah. Good. You get your redemption.

Sunny:

Yes.

Vanessa:

Oh, 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.

Sunny:

You also get your redemption. Young the Giant is on this lineup.

Vanessa:

Oh my god, I forgot about that. Oh I haven't seen Young the Giant in years. And Flip Turn.

Sunny:

Yes.

Vanessa:

Which I was supposed to see, I think at Bonnaroo this year, and it obviously didn't happen.

Sunny:

I missed out at Outside Lands this year, so that also stood out to me.

Vanessa:

And then Big Boi from OutKast.

Sunny:

Oh hell yeah.

Vanessa:

Amazing. 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.

Sunny:

I know.

Vanessa:

And you can't

Sunny:

after Austin City Limits, I was just like, I need to not do as much homework.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Sunny:

Because 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?

Vanessa:

Oh, and goth babe. I keep oh my gosh, Goth Babe, Big X tha plug.

Sunny:

I know.

Vanessa:

The biggest, the largest. Oh my gosh.

Sunny:

I did end up watching a lot of vlogs on YouTube. Did you?

Vanessa:

For Okeechobee?

Sunny:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

We watched two right before I came.

Sunny:

I noticed there's a lot of sunrise sets and

Vanessa:

Oh really?

Sunny:

Yeah. 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?

Vanessa:

I kept hearing them mention Aqua Chobee. I don't really know what it was. I thought it was just a stage.

Sunny:

It'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.

Vanessa:

Oh, sick.

Sunny:

That looked really cool. And I also just noticed the community vibe even through the vlogs.

Vanessa:

To 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.

Sunny:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

It seems like a really cool one.

Sunny:

Are you gonna be in Iowa already?

Vanessa:

I don't know.

Sunny:

Okay.

Vanessa:

I 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.

Sunny:

Heck yeah. Yeah, it's 48 from here.

Vanessa:

Oh god.

Sunny:

So flying it is. Um so we're very excited for Okeechobee. I'm glad we found our new festival.

Vanessa:

I just wish it wasn't so early in the year, but

Sunny:

I know

Vanessa:

because like I'm already stressing out about it.

Sunny:

Yeah. Oh no, no,

Vanessa:

because it's coming up. No, 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.

Sunny:

It'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.

Vanessa:

Yeah. 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.

Sunny:

The only reason why I had said that is because they were like, ticket prices increase tonight.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Sunny:

We didn't buy tickets either. Because we are gonna get in as media.

Vanessa:

Manifesting,

Sunny:

putting that into the universe. Uh since we've never been to Okeechobee, we 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.

Vanessa:

Please help me I'm poor.

Sunny:

Yeah, please buy our ticket.

Vanessa:

No, don't do that.

Sunny:

I think that's that's all I got for Okeechobee.

Vanessa:

All 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.

Sunny:

Bye.