This weekend’s Pahokee Heritage Music Festival will feature a diverse lineup of performers that ranges from jazz, R&B, rock and blues to soca, Latin, country and pop.
There’s also a gospel music competition, an array of seafood, barbecue and Caribbean food vendors, plus some of the area’s prominent visual artists and authors — all along the Lake Okeechobee waterfront at the City of Pahokee Marina and Campground.
“We want everyone to come out and enjoy the unique flavors, diverse cultures and rich heritage of the citizens of Pahokee and the surrounding Lake Okeechobee communities,” says the festival’s founder and chairwoman, Mattie Crawford.
With its outdoor marina stage, and recording artists based in Tampa (jazz saxophonist and Pahokee native Marlon Boone), Atlanta (chart-topping R&B quartet Silk), Boynton Beach (funk/rock act The People Upstairs), Detroit (R&B group Clinton Powell and the CP3 Band) and the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent (international soca star Kevin Lyttle), the broad scope of the Friday-through-Sunday festival makes it feel like the first such annual event — even though it’s actually the second.
“Last year’s inaugural festival was a smaller gathering with about 200 people,” says festival coordinator Ann Marie Sorrell, president and CEO of the Mosaic Group, which handles the event’s marketing and PR. “But we wanted to expand into something like a smaller version of SunFest in West Palm Beach, or along the lines of Jazz in the Gardens in Miami Gardens.
“Over the next several years, the festival could create a revenue stream for city programs, and positive awareness and unity for Pahokee and the entire surrounding region. Having been raised in Pahokee, this area will always be near and dear to my heart,” Sorrell said.
Like the seven-year-old Jazz in the Gardens, SunFest started out as a grass-roots jazz festival in 1982 before growing into its huge current waterfront status along the Intracoastal Waterway. With its varied lineup and Lake Okeechobee location, the Pahokee Heritage Music Festival could eventually spread similar roots.
“The stage is located right by the marina’s boat ramp entrance,” Sorrell says, “so there are several docking areas. People can arrive by boat, car or RV, and there are rental cottages as well as traditional camping, plus hotels that are within 30 minutes of the marina in both Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach.”
Pahokee’s location along Lake Okeechobee, the largest freshwater lake in Florida and the seventh-largest in the United States, has a major impact on the city’s heritage. The historic region is a favorite destination for fishing, nature walks, eco-tours, boating, bird-watching, cycling and airboat rides. The lake also helps to irrigate the less-than-affluent area’s fertile soil, which produces its primary export, sugar cane.
The town’s secondary export may be the athletes from Pahokee High School, who make accepting college scholarships on National Signing Day an annual event. The school’s football program has produced National Football League Hall-of-Famers like linebacker Rickey Jackson and current all-pro selections like wide receiver Anquan Boldin.
Saxophonist Marlon Boone played baseball while at Pahokee High, yet chose music over athletics to attend Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, where he was a member of the school’s famed Marching Wildcats band. He’s now one of the busiest musicians in the Tampa Bay area, performing with his own jazz group, rising R&B act City Groove, and Christian rock band Desert Rain.
“Marlon will perform solo on Friday at the Pahokee Marina Tiki Bar,” Sorrell says, “as part of our VIP, sponsor and media kick-off reception. He’ll also play with his band at the marina stage on Sunday. These will be rare performances in Pahokee, since he can’t get back here as often as he’d like to.”
The Saturday lineup includes Detroit R&B group Clinton Powell and the CP3 Band, Fort Lauderdale funk/ska act R!M, and Miami-based Tairon Aguilera and the Latin Beat Band. The headliners are Kevin Lyttle (who has Top 40 soca hits in the United States, Caribbean, England, Finland, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, and The Netherlands) and R&B group Silk (whose hits Happy Days and Freak Me propelled their debut CD Lose Control to double-platinum status).
On Sunday, it’s West Palm Beach blues band Tales Untold, the percussive People Upstairs (whose members met in the drum line for the marching band at Atlantic High School in Delray Beach), pop/country vocalist Monique McCall (a former Ms. Connecticut who just completed her third CD in Nashville), and Boone’s anticipated jazz homecoming.
“Sunday will also feature the Pure Inspiration Gospel Competition,” Sorrell says, “with local judges as well as Tyga Graham, a former member of Silk who’s now a gospel artist out of Atlanta. It’s presented by the local Harvest AME Church, and the gospel choirs and artists will compete for a $500 cash prize.”
Tickets, as well as food prices and other fees (like $25 for camping, which includes electric and water service), are much more reasonable than at other festivals. There were even additional discounts through Groupon until Feb. 19.
“We wanted entire families to be able to come out,” Sorrell says, “so we have senior and student tickets available for $5 within the city. And tickets cost the same at the gate as they do online. It’s a community event, so we wanted to make it affordable for both the people in the Lake Okeechobee area and others who have to spend money to travel here.”
The Pahokee Heritage Music Festival runs from 6-9 p.m. Friday; noon-10 p.m. Saturday, and noon-7 p.m. Sunday at the Pahokee Marina, 190 N. Lake Ave., in Pahokee. VIP tickets for the Friday Kick-off Reception (for VIP, sponsors and media only) at the Pahokee Marina Tiki Bar cost $10, as do one-day Saturday or Sunday individual general admission tickets. Weekend individual, family and group passes are also available. Call 561-285-2473 or 561-924-5534, or visit www.cityofpahokee.com.