SunFest 2024 is featuring these 20 local acts, including three Palm Beach County school bands
Three local school bands and more than a dozen other local acts will perform alongside nationally known acts at SunFest 2024.
The jazz bands of West Boca High School and John I. Leonard High School as well as the Roosevelt Middle School band will perform at Florida's largest music festival, which runs May 3 to 5 in West Palm Beach. Joining them will be 17 other local bands, artists and DJs, festival organizers announced last week. It's part of SunFest's efforts this year to both cut down on ballooning costs to book big acts and to nurture local talent, organizers have said.
Roosevelt Middle will play first thing Saturday, May 4, from 1 to 1:20 p.m. West Boca's jazz band will perform for the same 20-minute time period Sunday, May 5, with John I. Leonard on from 2:10 to 2:30 p.m.
While SunFest 2023 cut the number of stages to two, SunFest 2024 will restore the third stage and reserve it for local acts. The other two stages will feature better-known bands and artists.
What local talent, bands can we expect at SunFest 2024?
Here is the full schedule of local acts set to play the Sandbar Stage at SunFest:
Friday, May 3 | |
5:30 - 6 p.m. | Disbarred |
6:30 - 7 p.m. | Shaw Davis & The Black Ties |
7 - 7:30 p.m. | DJ Aaron |
7:30 - 8:15 p.m. | Vern Daysel & The Burning Breeze |
Saturday, May 4 | |
1 - 1:20 p.m. | Roosevelt Middle School Band |
2:10 - 2:30 p.m. | New Phi Thang Drumline |
3 - 3:30 p.m. | School of Rock South |
4 - 4:30 p.m. | I'm Dru! |
5 - 5:30 p.m. | Brett Staska & The Souvenirs |
6 - 6:30 p.m. | Hello Sister |
6:30 - 7:15 p.m. | DJ Immortal |
7:15 - 8 p.m. | Nightbreakers |
Sunday, May 5 | |
1 - 1:20 p.m. | West Boca High School Jazz Band |
2:10 - 2:30 p.m. | John I. Leonard High School Jazz Band |
3 - 3:30 p.m. | School of Rock North |
4 - 4:30 p.m. | Ben Krieger |
5 - 5:30 p.m. | Buko Boys |
6 - 6:45 p.m. | The Floridians |
6:45 - 7:30 p.m. | DJ Immortal |
7:30 - 8:15 p.m. | Jutt Huffman |
SunFest's other two stages will still feature bigger acts such as Nelly, Billy Idol, Cole Swindell and Third Eye Blind. The downtown West Palm Beach waterfront multiday festival has lost more than $6 million over the past seven years while hiking prices, cutting days, booking fewer big musical acts and removing longtime attractions.
More: SunFest has been in the red $1M per festival for years. Ticket prices have doubled. Why?
Single-day ticket price cut for SunFest 2024
SunFest is keeping the same three-day adult pricing as 2023 while cutting single-day admission for tickets bought at the gate.
The three-day price at the gate will be $170. Advance tickets for all days are on sale for $155 online at sunfest.com/tickets until Saturday.
The single-day gate price will be $82, a nod to 1982, when SunFest started. This year will be the 40th festival. Organizers canceled it in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19.
Last year's single-day gate price was $90. Single-day advance tickets are on sale for $80 until Saturday.
More: For Dreyfoos students, chance to rock on stage with Gwen Stefani 'different kind of pressure'
Why did SunFest 2023 cut Art Village, other attractions?
The plan for SunFest 2023 was to bring in big crowds by delivering the big artists attendees said they wanted while cutting attractions such as the Sunday night fireworks show and the Art Village, a cluster of tented booths in which local artists sold paintings, ornaments, clothes, jewelry and other colorful work.
SunFest 2024 will bring back its Art Village this year.
“That’s something we heard loud and clear from those that attended last year that they missed,” Craven said. The fireworks show, however, is not budgeted.
Attendance fell to 75,000 this year — less than SunFest 2022 and less than half of each festival from 2013 to 2017. This year's festival lost $1.6 million, Craven said. She blamed the drop in attendance on SunFest shrinking to three days from four in 2022. Before 2018, it ran for five days.
SunFest 2023 made just under $5.9 million, SunFest Executive Director Dianna Craven said, about $160,000 more than 2022. But it cost more than $7.5 million, which was about $100,000 more expensive than 2022.
The festival spent $3.3 million on musical acts last year, more than half a million dollars less than 2022. It is cutting that to $2 million this year, Craven has said.
Who is playing SunFest 2024? Here is the music lineup
This year's headliners include Nelly, Billy Idol, Cole Swindell, Yung Gravy, Third Eye Blind and Rebelution. See full lineup up here.
SunFest 2024: Hours, location, schedule
When: May 3 through 5, 2024
Where: 101 S. Clematis St., West Palm Beach - Along the Intracoastal Waterway in downtown West Palm Beach. The festival grounds are officially on Flagler Drive in between Banyan Boulevard and Lakeview Avenue.
Chris Persaud is the data reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at cpersaud@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: SunFest 2024 lineup includes Palm Beach County school, jazz bands
