You can’t keep a good area music promoter and PureHoney magazine publisher like Steev Rullman down.
After the success of his fourth annual Bumblefest in 2019, with 37 musical acts over two nights to celebrate his print and online publication’s eighth anniversary, Rullman — along with the rest of the world — hit a COVID-19-induced snag in 2020.
Yet Bumblefest 5 will celebrate PureHoney’s 10th anniversary with East Coast-West Coast headliners, plus a handful of other notable acts, along the 500 block of Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach on Sept. 17.
The East Coast headliner is local heroes Surfer Blood, the members of which (singing guitarists John Paul Pitts and Mike McCleary, bassist/vocalist Lindsey Mills, and drummer Tyler Schwarz) all graduated from Dreyfoos High School of the Arts in West Palm Beach. Their latest recording, last year’s Carefree Theatre (Kanine Records), is named for the landmark West Palm Beach concert and film venue damaged by hurricanes and torn down in 2016.
Seattle-launched headliner Unwed Sailor is the mostly instrumental, ambient brainchild of bassist Johnathon Ford. Also featured are Spirit & the Cosmic Heart, Room Thirteen, American Sigh, Beautiful Disaster, Ben Katzman’s Degreaser, Cog Nomen, Death By Holiday, The Dewars, The Dreambows, Glass Body, Jakob Takos & the Connection, Jezgajams, Mouthtape, Nervous Monks, Soul Particles, and Stucco, all at Respectable Street, Subculture Alley, O’Shea’s Irish Pub, Alchemy Juice Co. & Market, and BRK Republic Dog Park & Bar.
Bumblefest 5 starts at 6 p.m. Sept. 17 along the 500 block of Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. Tickets: $20.