SunFest ends with a bang, even without beloved fireworks finale
WEST PALM BEACH — Fewer bands and steeper ticket prices made for a scaled-back final day of the SunFest music festival Sunday. While newcomers took advantage of the navigable crowds, returning loyalists grumbled about the lack of shoulder-to-shoulder shenanigans and art vendors of years past.
Thousands still flocked to West Palm Beach's downtown waterfront Sunday to hear bands like The Killers, 311, All Time Low and Ziggy Marley perform. SunFest officials won't get the attendance numbers for several days, but executive director Paul Jamieson said he already considers the event a success — thanks in part to the clear skies.
The festival followed a packed schedule spread across two stages, down from three in previous years. Nadia Pusey, a 33-year-old vendor from Miami, sold frozen lemonade near the largest stage. Fewer attendees means fewer drunkards and better vibes, she said, though some ne'er-do-wells still manage to slip through the cracks.
Pusey watched a group of police officers use an iPhone's "Find My Phone" feature to track down two suspected cellphone thieves Saturday night, tackling one of them behind Pusey's frozen lemonade stand. Pusey laughed when she told the story Sunday and said some things never change.
"Dark liquor comes out when the sun goes down," she said.
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Couples played cornhole and posed in front of Instagram-able backdrops while bands ran through sound checks early in the day. Of the estimated thousands who attended SunFest, only a handful stopped at the booth offering free COVID-19 tests and vaccines.
A man in his 20s took a selfie in front of it with his middle finger raised. Kelly Williams, a 29-year-old woman staffing the booth, flashed a peace sign at the camera.
"We get pushback all day," she said later. "You've just got to have fun with it."
Food vendors on either side of her waved free samples at passersby while their employees sneaked bites of the merchandise behind them. Attendees hurried from one side of the festival to hear emo boyband All Time Low in the afternoon before rushing back to the mainstage in time for Ziggy Marley.
Every few feet, police kept an eye out for pickpockets. Some officers stood on the outskirts of the festival waiting to shoo anyone who tried jumping the fence.
On-stage technical difficulties were rare and well-received. One inspired an impromptu a cappella singalong of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" after members of singer Charlotte Sands' band left the stage to fix their instruments.
First-time attendees Cynthia Anthony and John Brown said they were disappointed organizers canceled SunFest's usual closing fireworks display, but were grateful that the festival wasn't too crowded. The Jacksonville couple had no trouble finding a spot on the lawn to relax while they waited for Ziggy Marley to take the stage.
Others, like 62-year-old Stacy McDonald, were less enthused. This year's festival is her thirteenth, she said. The crowds are smaller, the attendees younger and their clothes more revealing.
"It's all boobies!" McDonald said, sitting on a lawn chair in the shade. "See-through negligees and shorts. My mom would never let me go out like that."
McDonald said she missed the intimacy of previous SunFests: attendees packed like sardines, some with no choice but to bump into one another and become friends. Twelve years ago, she and a group of strangers tied blankets together to create a makeshift trampoline, some pulling it taut while others took turns bouncing in the middle.
That wouldn't happen now, she said.
To a couple of newlyweds from Jupiter, Sunday's festival was the perfect kickstart to their honeymoon. Kevin and Emily Fallon got married Saturday and came SunFest to hear The Killers, whose hit "Mr. Brightside" was on their wedding playlist one night earlier.
Both attended SunFest as teens at Jupiter High School but didn't meet until years later, with the help of a dating app. This year's SunFest was the first they've spent together and is already Kevin's favorite, he said. They'd arrived just minutes earlier.
SunFest sales manager Sharon Hoffman surprised the couple by upgrading their tickets to the most expensive and exclusive package the festival offers, promising food and drinks and a private view of the main stage.
She smiled when the young couple pointed to the words "bride" and "groom" printed on their lanyards. Hoffman met her husband at SunFest more than two decades earlier.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: SunFest ends with a bang, even without beloved firework finale
