Okeechobee Music Festival 2017 Lineup Phase 1
Where do I even begin?! This is honestly a lineup that came straight from my dreams. From Nightmares on Wax, whom I’ve been listening to since 2008 to Anderson .Paak who just made a splash into my ears as of recently, this lineup surely has it all. It will be my 6th time seeing Pretty Lights but it will be my first time seeing him with his new band. From all the reviews I’ve heard about his band, I honestly cannot even begin to imagine where his show is going to take me to. The fact that even more artists are getting added to this blows my mind.
Wiz Khalifa, who I’ve had plenty of chances to see in the past, is blessing me with another opportunity to see him. I think this will be the time I actually give his set a shot. As much as I’ve disliked his music after the release of Rolling Papers, I have my fingers crossed his set with be just as surprising to me as Mac Miller’s set was last year (granted Wiz has no song that comes close to “Donald Trump” on any of his Albums [Kush and OJ is a mixtape]). I’d love nothing more than for him to just play the entirety of Kush and OJ and then walk off stage but I know he’s probably long past that. But I’m still planning on bringing a sign begging him to do it anyways. Because why not? What do I have to lose!
The one person who truly surprised me to see on this list was Bassnectar. I never expected an artist to do a festival two years in a row outside of EDM festivals. But here we are. Bassnectar round 2. And for me, it’ll be my 4th time seeing him. Truly blessed. He puts on one hell of a show every single time and he was actually my first late night closing set DJ at my first ever festival. His set last year was tame for him but I have a feeling he won’t be holding back this time around.
Out of some of the lesser known names found at the bottom of the list, I’ve been really impressed with Ott, Tauk, VHS Collection, aand Haywyre. All based around electronic with Tauk having more of a jam band vibe, but I can’t wait to check out these guys as well.
These headliners are nothing to look past though. Kings of Leon have been around my playlists for quite some time now and it’s honestly still surreal to me that I’m actually being given a chance to see them perform. Even if I’m about to collapse from sheer exhaustion, I plan on being there to see their set all the way through. And as if it couldn’t get any better, I get to see The Roots again. I was lucky enough to see them at SunFest this past year in West Palm Beach but the fact that Usher (who is talented regardless of whether you like his music or not) is playing along with him only makes it that much more exciting. It’s like Phantogram and Big Boi touring together, except way better. The Lumineers made a huge splash with their album this past year and are rightfully up there at the top of the list of headliners. Although I am not the biggest fan of them, I’ll be there to check out their set if there are no conflicts with another set at that same time. Their song “Ophelia” definitely got overplayed and shoved down my throat on the radio, as do most songs, but I won’t hold that against them. They made a hit and you got to respect that and accept the consequences that come with that courtesy of the radio.
Seeing that Rae Sremmurd is there on the second line leads me to believe these are not all the headliners. Last year there were quite a few big names added in the second wave announcement. So I’m currently holding out hope that there will be some big names added to the new list coming out sometime soon (hopefully).
