Okeechobee Posts Festival Return Teaser After Rumors Event has Been ‘Bought Back’ by Original Owners

The music and arts festival Okeechobee has already announced its 2024 hiatus but renews hope for attendees with the rumored return of the festival’s original owners, Soundslinger.

Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival has been taking place on 800 acres of land in Sunshine Grove since 2016. After a hiatus in 2019, the festival partnered with Insomniac Events in 2020. Since the partnership, some festival-goers have complained about what Okeechobee has turned into — but — all is well after a recent Instagram post from Okeechobee’s original owners, Soundslinger.

Okeechobee is a multi-genre music festival in Sunshine Grove, right outside Okeechobee City, FL. The festival has had star-studded lineups with headliners such as Kendrick Lamar, Excision, GRiZ, and ODESZA. Okeechobee returned in March of 2023 for another year of music and arts, but the summer after, the festival organizers announced that they would take 2024 as a fallow year and return to their roots in 2025.

Some speculated that this decision came after a 26-year-old attendee with LSD in his system drowned in a nearby canal at the 2023 festival, but the tragedy had nothing to do with the decision. In a shared Instagram post, Okeechobee and the festival’s original owners, Soundslinger, said, “New Year, new vibes, same portal.” The shared post with the original owners sparked rumors that Soundslinger bought back Okeechobee.

After seeing the shared Instagram post in addition to the festivals X post, fans had mixed feelings about Okeechobee’s next steps. Many fans were excited about the return of the festival and the return of Soundslinger in hopes that the festival would return to what it was like before its partnership with Insomniac. Fans stated they have not had the best experiences these past couple of years, especially in 2023, due to the festival being poorly run.

With the speculated departure from Insomniac, Okeechobee aims to return better and be more reminiscent of the festival’s early days. When Okeechobee came onto the festival circuit in 2016, they made waves with their multi-genre lineup that has become more EDM-centered these past couple of years.

Okeechobee has decided not to have their 2024 festival in hopes of reconnecting with their roots. Having been rumored that the original owners, Soundslinger, have ‘bought back’ Okeechobee, many fans are left hopeful for a spectacular festival experience post-Insomniac.