"People are expecting music that weekend. They’ve been expecting it for 40 years."
It sounds familiar: A major music festival happening on the first weekend of May along the waterfront in downtown West Palm Beach, with 20 bands performing on multiple stages, plus vendors, artists, food and drink.
But it’s not SunFest. Nor does the 561 Music Festival aspire to be SunFest.
Taking place on Saturday, May 3, and curated by two longtime champions of the South Florida music scene, 561 Music Festival is a hyperlocal, free-admission event that has been so successful in recent years that it outgrew its former location at live-music destination Mathews Brewing Co. in Lake Worth Beach.
When the organizers of SunFest put the 2025 edition of the 40-year-old festival on hold, leaving the park around West Palm Beach’s Meyer Amphitheatre unexpectedly silent, 561 Music Festival organizers Hector Diaz and Ben Childs moved to fill the gap with local music.
Read more at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel