Okeechobee 2020: An Insider’s Portal Guide

Okeechobee 2020

It’s almost that time. March is right around the corner and the Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival is back in action! Bassnectar & Tipper! Vampire Weekend & Mumford & Son! This lineup truly has something for everyone.

If you live for the late-night action, Incendia & Jungle 51 will keep the music going till the break of dawn all weekend.

Weather

Don’t just think, “Oh Florida, palm trees and sunshine we’ll be good”. It will be cold! I mean it, in ‘17 & ‘18 I could see my breath each night and would be shivering if I didn’t have on long pants and an insulated jacket. Don’t be fooled by the tropical scenes & scantily clad kids they show in the marketing videos! The moisture in the air makes it feel much colder than the actual temperature would suggest. Always remember the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared”.

Be sure to bring a good water-proof tent and batten down those hatches, it usually rains every day in Florida!

Check out our Festival Tent Buying Guide and Prepare Thy Self Secure Your Tent blog with some tips for your festival camp set up!

What to Bring

As you are still planning and not sure what to bring, here is our downloadable/printable checklist so you can make sure you don’t forget anything for your festival camp. And take advantage of FREE-TWO-day shipping for PRIME Members!

According to the official Okeechobeefest.com website camping guidelines, there is a long list of things you can and cannot bring. Below is the Fun list and click here to view the long list of Prohibited Items.

Acceptable Items

These additional items are encouraged in the campground:

YES Battery-powered candles and lanterns
YES Bicycles and scooters (non-motorized)
YES Canopies, E-Z UPs, large umbrellas, or shade structures
YES Cell phones
YES Cigarettes (must be sealed upon entry)
YES E-cigs/vapes (refillable liquid chambers OK—must be empty upon entry)
YES E-juice (up to one bottle per person—must be factory-sealed upon entry)
YES Juul Pods (must be in sealed pack upon entry)
YES Fanny packs
YES Glowing/illuminated costumes or jewelry
YES Glowsticks (string glowstick/LED pois, orbitals and whips are permitted but must be performed 5 feet away from others)
YES Gum (must be sealed at entry)
YES Hammocks
YES Hula hoops (especially LED hoops!)
YES Hydration packs with no more than two main compartments and one smaller compartment (must be empty upon entry)
YES Lighters
YES Lip balm/gloss (must be sealed upon entry)
YES Makeup
YES Manual scooters, skateboards, longboards, bicycles
YES Non-amplified (acoustic) musical instruments
YES Non-professional flash/still cameras and hand-held video cameras (e.g., Sony Action Cam, GoPro, Polaroid)
YES Personal food
YES Personal misting fan with a bottle no larger than 1.5L (must be empty upon entry)
YES Personal-size battery-powered speakers
YES Personal-size pool floaties (made for no more than one adult)
YES Plastic mirrors
YES Physician-prescribed medication that is not expired (must show physician’s prescription and consult with a safety officer upon entry)
YES Reusable water bottles (must be empty at entry)
YES Small, portable propane grills/stoves* with small tanks, up to 4 lbs per group
(propane bottles that are part of your RV/camping trailer’s internal system are OK, even if they exceed 4 lbs)
YES Sunscreen lotion (inspected upon entry)
YES Tampons and pads (must be sealed upon entry)
YES Wagons
YES Wind chairs/sofas (must be deflated upon entry)

Getting around

Bring multiple pairs of comfortable shoes, multiple pairs of socks for each day, and some moleskin patches.

Moleskin is the best way to handle blisters & shoe friction problems. It’s like putting on a new layer of skin and has been my saving grace countless times while backpacking. It helps to prevent blisters but also protects the ones that have already accumulated from getting worse. You’ll be doing so much walking each day you’re gonna wanna massage/stretch out your feet whenever you get the chance.

Pedicabs

If you’re too tired to walk back, there will be plenty of bicycle-powered rickshaws you can pay to give you rides all the way to your tent.

You can now bring BIKES, SCOOTERS & SKATEBOARDS to Okeechobee!!! In past years only pedicabs could have any sort of wheeled way of getting around, not anymore!! While the majority of the site is grass/sand there are paved paths lining most areas as can be seen on the map. So dust off those olds wheels in your garage and ride again!

Maps

There’s one notable difference in the map layout for 2020 compared to 2018’s layout. Instead of having the 3 main stages (BE, HERE & NOW) within the center Grove of trees, in 2020 the HERE stage will be closer to the area considered to be Chobeewobee Village. It’ll be interesting to see what the security situation is for the HERE stage now that it’s outside of the Grove because in years past the stages in The Grove were the only ones you had to go through a security/bag check to get to.

I believe Mumford & Sons closing out Sunday night is a great way to send off the crowd on a tame & wholesome sound after a wild fast-paced weekend. It would be a nightmare for the crews onsite getting people to leave on Monday if say Bassnectar was to close out Sunday night. If you’re a big Mumford & Sons fan this might be the performance to catch because their sound is kind of an outlier on this heavily electronic lineup.

I can see a lot of people leaving Sunday morning which would mean a thin crowd for Mumford! Remember this is only speculation, but this was the case for the Arcade Fire Sunday closer in 2018. I got there just as it started and was able to pretty much walk right up to the front.

Counting down for the FESTIVAL SEASON kick off in Flordia!!!!

With the schedule yet to be released, there are still several questions to be answered. TBD…

But here is a little taste with this Spotify playlist:

~The Eagle HAS Landed!
YFE Welcomes Eagle Scout to the Your Festival Experience TEAM!

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