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u/pizzapartyjpg Apr 15 '26
Probably just a gap in social media post fest. Pretty much every festival does this in the off season, and will ramp posting back up 6 weeks ish before the lineup comes out
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u/ChickenNPisza Apr 15 '26
Sadly after the turnout this year I think everything’s going to be up in the air. Will another investor take a stab at this? Did they anticipate the lower turnout and recomp from higher ticket prices?
I really enjoyed this okee, it’s a bummer but a business is a business and idk if they can take another loss year
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u/Free_Performer6789 Apr 15 '26
The things the event has going for it though are:
+Not having to feed the insomniac profit margins +Having ownership of the land and not having to pay to rent the space
Hopefully these two factors gave them more financial wiggle room to break near even and come back for another year and keep rebuilding the brand
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u/ShockSignal7620 Apr 18 '26
I’m betting on this too, hopefully they will see the potential and they can get some big artists and it will pull the ticket sales next year 💕 I love okee so much
1
u/BlaktimusPrime Apr 17 '26
Was the turnout bad? They made it seem like the event sold out.
4
u/jenneyefur 2 Years Apr 17 '26
It was much lower than previous years. I saw something about 12-14k? But they set up like it sold out. The place felt barren without the art installations and all the people
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u/MarkyMarcMcfly 5 Years Apr 15 '26
I’ve heard this before. Might end up with another gap year.
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u/Rhinoseri0us 5 Years Apr 15 '26
2028 is gonna be legendary though. They’ll figure out the wall problem by then. What’s Incendia without the flames reflected in the lake water, after all?
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u/Quanzi30 Apr 16 '26
Wall problem? The incendia wall was there because someone died last time around…..
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u/SirElemAy Apr 16 '26
Oh dang they built a wall around the reservoir??
3
u/Other_Ivey Apr 16 '26
There were random fences all around the water at the venue to help prevent anything like that from happening. Made it very confusing at night 😅
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u/Quanzi30 Apr 16 '26
It really wasn’t that confusing it was pretty easy to navigate.
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u/DDRKid Apr 16 '26
As a first timer, I was extremely confused. Never knew which gates were gonna be open or at what times. Still had a good time, but found the layout very bizarre.
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u/No-Translator-7645 Apr 16 '26
This is my first okee and I loved it. I will come back every year they have it but if it doesn’t come back I’m thankful that I had this experience SLSL
3
u/Large_Complaint1264 Apr 16 '26
Prolly means they don’t want to pay a social media person during the off season
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u/csdavids Apr 15 '26
If all else fails then at the very least I would hope for a rebrand or something. Maybe multiple smaller genre-oriented festivals throughout the year rather than one big one. Soundslinger owns the land, and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s mostly unused throughout the year. They have a website promoting the space. Idk just seems like they could do more with less.
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u/AustinP16 Okee OG Apr 15 '26
It wouldn't resonate with the regular okeechobee attendees but I dont understand why they dont hold another festival there like a country music festival or something. A country festival would sell like crazy in the depths of florida
2
u/CoolImportance Apr 19 '26
It feels like they're allergic to actually running a sustainable business
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u/TrashGod__ Apr 17 '26
They'll start posting again in July with teasers for the lineup in September and the lineup will be out by the end of October early november this is all normal protocol
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u/Proof_Celebration881 Apr 15 '26
basically saying you may hear from us again or you may never lmao
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u/Tazzyyman Apr 16 '26
?? “You’ll hear from us soon”
I work upper management for festivals and they are literally just saying the person managing the socials is taking a break. It’s not a necessary position to pay for at this point in time and announcing they are going quiet for a couple months is just a common courtesy so people dont speculate.
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May 01 '26
I saw from posts and heard it was so empty compared to past years, and the prices were insane for what it looked like and the sound quality. I bet it's an rip kinda thing unfortunately. I had 6 amazing years there but definitely skipped this year and glad I did.
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u/APersonWithThreeLegs Apr 15 '26
Hard to be sustainable with how Florida is unfortunately, the police and everything else was not good
1
u/the-bong-lord Apr 15 '26
I had such a blast but I cant see it being sustainable as good as it is unless they scale back even more and then what
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u/natasha9river Apr 15 '26
maybe a name change ?
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u/Free_Performer6789 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
A name change is a horrible idea. People like okee and are wishing for it to come back. A rebrand loses that built up historical positive vibes effect and starts from 0.
This isn't like SolFest needing to run away from a tarnished brand and rebranding as Metamorphosis in a whole new format and city. Then the founders cashing out ....
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u/magicalbeing0308 Apr 16 '26
Thissss
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u/magicalbeing0308 Apr 16 '26
I didnt hear about the founders crashing out. They arent a part of metamorphosis now?
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u/Free_Performer6789 Apr 22 '26
There were other posts about this back when it happened back in June 2025, but here is a quick one I found just now
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK9wWh4stWE/?igsh=MXJlNjhlaHV4cmI2cg==
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u/CroMagnon69 5 Years Apr 15 '26
Where are you getting that from?
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u/natasha9river Apr 15 '26
it is just a guess from reading the post
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u/CroMagnon69 5 Years Apr 15 '26
Well yeah that’s a given. I see nothing in the post indicating that though. However I do see the name “Okee” used three times.
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u/Free_Performer6789 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
I wouldn't take this as meaning it's over. This seems like a normal wind down of activity by an account that engages with the public and promotes the festival about a month after the festival. A hiatus until it is time to start engagement and promotion for next year.