A funny thing happened on the way to SunFest 2025, and by now, practically everyone knows what it is.
After years of not turning a profit, and on the heels of its 40th anniversary in 2024, the festival announced last November that fans should expect a “significant shift” in dates and location and that the event “will no longer take place on the traditional first weekend of May” starting this year.
All of which proved to be music to the ears of Ben Childs and Hector Diaz, singing multi-instrumentalists for area roots music trio the Killbillies and co-hosts of the popular 561 Music (561music.com) audio and video podcast. Their first three celebratory 561 Music Festivals had taken place at Mathews Brewing Company in Lake Worth Beach before an opportunity arose out of the SunFest vacancy.
Their fourth annual 561 Music Festival will take place all day on May 3, the same date that SunFest started last year, and at the location of SunFest’s only recurring permanent stage, the Meyer Amphitheater in downtown West Palm Beach.
Attendees can see 20 of South Florida’s top bands and artists on two stages between 11:30 a.m. and 10 p.m., and in a variety of musical genres: Beeline, Billy Doom Is Dead, Blabscam, Closer To the Ocean, Fuakata, Ryan Hopkins Band, Jutt Huffman Band, The Little Things, Medicine Room, Modern Odyssey, Off Orbit, Mason Pace, Reverse Oreo, The Shakers, Slo Funk Pump, Stony Fools, Stryder, Jakob Takos & The Connection, Tiger Sunset, and Wrasse.
“We heard the news about SunFest not happening in May this year,” Diaz says, “and figured there wasn’t a better place to move our festival to — exactly where SunFest would’ve been, and on the same weekend, where people were expecting music. We reached out to the city of West Palm Beach and they told us the site was available, so we sent in the application and they approved us.”
As it’s been with previous 561 Music Fests, artists will appear rapid-fire on stages facing each other, with two separate PA systems allowing for such immediacy.
“There will never be someone not playing,” says Childs. “And each act will have appeared on the podcast by the time of the festival.”
Presented by the law firm Steinger, Greene & Feiner, the fest will also feature SunFest-style food and beverage trucks, art vendors, and additional tents from other sponsors, all included with the non-price of admission. There will also be a $100 VIP area on the amphitheater’s west end.
“It’ll be fenced in,” says Diaz, “with tents and chairs so the VIP people can get out of the sun and relax. Those folks will also have access to snacks and waters, and get a commemorative beverage cup. One of the beer vendors will be in that area, and will fill up those cups for free.”
561 Music debuted in 2021, and has grown in popularity while featuring mostly South Florida vocalists and musicians. Childs and Diaz have co-hosted nearly every podcast, but even the Killbillies’ third member, singing multi-instrumentalist James Galiano, has co-hosted a handful among the 200-plus.
Such success has resulted in the podcast recently moving from a small studio in Palm Beach Gardens to an expansive new location as the 561 Music School & Recording Studio, at 524 Northlake Blvd. in Lake Park.
“The new location is bigger and better,” Childs says, “with three different live rooms in the recording studio. It’s a paradigm shift for us.”
The podcast has also featured non-players like area venue owners, Palm Beach Gardens-based producer, sound engineer and music publishing expert Guy Gualtieri, British deejay Marlon Foster, and Lake Worth-based uber-music fan Ken Prather. Members of California-spawned rock/ska/funk titans Fishbone, Angelo Moore and Chris Dowd, even appeared in late 2024.
Ironically, the Killbillies made the first SunFest appearance of the trio’s 16-year history last year by playing on the main Ford Stage on May 4, 2024. Nearly a year later, Childs and Diaz will be in the same vicinity in entirely different roles.
“The Killbillies have this auspicious ability to close places down,” Childs says with a laugh. “We’ve played at the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth Beach twice just before they closed down, then reorganized and reopened. And now SunFest. I don’t know what it is. Maybe we’re so good that no one knows how to follow us.”
“That’s our story,” Diaz adds, “and we’re sticking to it.”
If You Go
561 Music Festival 4 at Meyer Amphitheater, 104 Datura St., West Palm Beach.
When: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. May 3
Admission: Free
Info: 561-822-1515, 561musicfestival.com