Last week Miami Beach Pop Festival announced their inaugural line-up to be held November 8-10, on the sands of South Beach. The line-up kind of has something for everyone. Kind of.
Headliners include Chance the Rapper, bland surf folkie Jack Johnson, reggaeton star Daddy Yankee, Norwegian House DJ Kygo, indie rock supergroup The Raconteurs, and Colombian troubadour Juanes. It’s an eclectic group being offered at a reasonable price with three day general admission passes going right now for $199.
The line-up features some name performers, but Miami Beach Pop Festival assuredly isn’t making anyone drop their jaw and say this is worth giving up five blocks of our prime beach for a month. The event will be held over three days on Miami Beach’s coastline between 5th and 10th street, but construction and take down will turn those five blocks of paradise into a veritable construction zone for the better part of a month. Grading on that scale the line-up announcement is pretty disappointing.
Especially when you consider the organizers of Miami Beach Pop Festival previously presented Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival which had a killer inaugural line-up that truly offered several acts for everyone including Kendrick Lamar, Robert Plant, Skrillex, Mumford and Sons, Future, Hall and Oates, and Portugal, the Man.
Miami Beach Pop Festival meanwhile is mostly bringing acts that have played South Florida recently and frequently. Jack Johnson and Chance the Rapper played here in 2017. While Daddy Yankee, The Roots, Leon Bridges, Juanes, Chic featuring Nile Rogers, and Stephen Marley have all played South Florida within the last twelve months. Only The Raconteurs will be making their South Florida debut.
On a positive note the festival did well by Miami by including a dozen local acts on the bill including Roosevelt Collier, Afrobeta, and Spam Allstars. On an optimistic note there will be a second wave of performers announced in the near future. Hopefully it will include some names that are worth giving up our beach for.
Here’s the entire first wave of performers announced for Miami Beach Pop Festival:
Chance The Rapper
Jack Johnson
Daddy Yankee
Kygo
The Raconteurs
Juanes
Maggie Rogers
Leon Bridges
The Roots
Nile Rodgers and Chic
Sean Paul
T-Pain
Jessie Reyez
Bomba Estereo
Quinn XCII
Natti Natasha
Gryffin
Brytiago
Margo Price
Chelsea Cutler
Kim Petras
Two Feet
Lali
Magic City Hippies
Monsieur Perine
DJ Windows 98 (Win Butler of Arcade Fire)
Rauw Alejandro
Ashe
Magic Giant
Roosevelt Collier
Reignwolf
Cimafunk
The Hip Abduction
Spam Allstars
Steven A. Clark
Richie Hell
Zander
Afrobeta
Miami Beach Senior High Rock Ensemble
Sunday Gospel Service
Sol Jam featuring Nile Rodgers and Very Special guests
All-Star Celebration of Bob Marley featuring Stephen Marley and Very Special Guests
Frost School of Music American Music Ensemble featuring Ben Folds
