1. Location, location, location
The pristine blue ocean and sandy beach provided a fantastic location for the beach loving country singers like Jake Owen and Kenny Chensey. 25,000 people singing “Beachin’” while on the beach is tough to beat.
2. Zac Brown Band
The band showed once again why they are in elite company at the top of the country music scene. The band was able to put together a set that covered all the hits and included super fun covers like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, and Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”. They finished their set with “Chicken Fried” and set off the most fun, raucous dance party of the weekend.
3. Sam Hunt
Playing off the main stage, Hunt had the largest crowd of the weekend aside from Chesney and Zac Brown Band. Hunt played his number 1 singles “Leave the Light On” and “Take Your Time”. He also worked in some classic 90's covers like Reba’s “Fancy” and Deanna Carter’s “Strawberry Wine”.
4. New Faces
Tortuga was a great place to see new and up and coming acts. Will Hoge celebrated the release of his new album Small Town Dreams which came out last Tuesday. Nikki Lane powered through the heat with a real fun set. Dylan Scott was a crowd pleaser and even hung around to take some pictures with some very excited fans after.
5. Kenny Chesney’s Return
Kenny made his grand return to the Tortuga Music Festival after taking a year off to work on his latest album, The Big Revival. Kenny played plenty of beach-y hits but also featured much of his new album as well. Chesney had tour mate Jake Owen join him on stage for the oh so fun “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” to close out his headlining act on Saturday night.
6. Amenities
While the beer lines seemed to stretch out at times, there was almost always at least one food line with a short wait time. The festival featured a variety of cuisines including American, Mexican, Thai, and Italian. Both times my wait was less than 10 minutes to get food. There were also places to get festival snacks like ice cream and pretzels. Overall I thought the prices were pretty fair. Pizza slices were available for $5. Chicken burrito, big enough to share, had roasted vegetables, cheese, and chicken for $10. In addition there were water bottle filling stations so you didn't need to buy a $3 Aquafina. Staff was friendly and understanding throughout the festival, although at times it seemed like there weren't many around.
7.
Conservation
A great thing about the Tortuga Music Festival is that some of the proceeds benefit the Rock the Ocean which aims to raise awareness of issues facing the ocean and sponsors ocean research and education. To learn more about Rock the Ocean visit:
http://rocktheocean.com/
8. David Nail
Nail showed his incredible vocal range when he hit the Tortuga Stage Saturday afternoon. Nail played much of his I’m a Fire album while also covering his first number one hit, “Let It Rain” and other hits like “Turning Home” and “Red Light”.
9. Production Quality
There wasn’t really a bad seat in the house. If being up close was important to you, you needed to plan your time well, but you were able to walk up to near the edge of the crowd and usually have a good view of the video screens.
10. Price
Two day general admission which cost $165. Over the two days, there were 25 acts to choose from. We were able to see 13 (with some very hard choices made) which works out to $12 an act. Tickets are $100 to see the Zac Brown Band alone in August at Fenway Park.
The Nitty Gritty
We flew down on Jet Blue (from Boston) and landed into Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and returned home on Spirit Air out of Palm Beach International (PBI) non stop both ways. Doing our flying a little unorthodox, we were able to get our flights for $250 a person. We rented a car through Priceline at Alamo for $150. We stayed at the Ocean Sky Hotel and Resort in North Fort Lauderdale (also booked through Priceline) for $566 for three night. It was a little dated but clean and right on the beach with pools and plenty of chair space. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the festival where we were lucky enough to find free parking. Lots of hotels offer a shuttle as well. The only other expense was food. We ate very cheap this weekend mostly due to necessity. We were exhausted both nights after the show so we never really went out for a formal dinner. We had breakfast at Starbucks both days and a very late lunch (because it was so hot) at the festival. One night we had some nachos at the tiki bar next door and another we ate some snacks we bought and just hung on the balcony. Our total food for the weekend was less than $100 a person. Total for the weekend: Less than $720 including festival tickets.
