Riptide Music Festival, a popular two-day beach music festival in Fort Lauderdale, released the set list for this year’s festival on Sunday, Sept. 24. Formerly known as Audacy Beach Festival, Riptide first started in 2016. The beach festival hosts alternative music artists every December and is said to be inspired by Tortuga Music Festival, another weekend-long music festival in Fort Lauderdale.
This year, the festival will take place on Dec. 2 and 3 and is located at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park. After posting the lineup on the official Riptidefest Instagram, the comment section was bombarded with negative comments comparing the new lineup to past years. Fans of the festival have been saying that the lineup does not live up to the alternative music label.
The headliners from previous years have been popular, largely followed bands and solo acts. These include The Killers, 21Pilots, Machine Gun Kelly, Jack White, youngblood and Boy with Uke. The headliners this year include bands that fall under the rock and rap genre, which differs from past years. This year’s headliners are The Black Keys, Jelly roll and Bleachers.
While an average concert is an hour and a half, music festivals’ setlists range from 30 to 90 minutes long. Performers have less of an opportunity to interact with the audience, meaning they must win over the crowd in a short set to be a memorable part of the festival.
The festival has confirmed food vendors including Burger Boyz, Pie95Pizza and more. Vegan and Vegetarian options will be provided by Vegan Demon. Art installations, photo ops and comfy spots to rest will be all around the festival. For example, in 2021, the festival featured a free hammock hangout site.
The festival tickets are sold as a two-day package with a starting price of $109. For a music festival, this price is relatively cheap considering it covers admission for two days. The admission does not include transportation, food, merch and more that attendees would spend money on at the festival.
The full set list will be released soon and includes artists from the Fort Lauderdale area. Festivalgoers will decide if the headliners will live up to their disappointed expectations, or will be a pleasant experience to add to their list of memorable festivals.
