Review #8: Okee 2023

OKEE 2023 REVIEW

NOTHING NEW: OKEECHOBEE RUINED AGAIN

let’s start off with the some positives because I’m about to slam this festival.

Positives:

The sound was improved at Aquachobee by adding speakers toward the middle.

The sets were amazing. Odesza was PHENOMENAL. Griz is so talented. LSDream created such a field of energy. Mersiv was insane. Zingara is SLEPT on and should have had a later set time.

Production under the Here stage was good. The sound was awesome.

Incendia was awesome, the space was great and they made better walk ways to go into it.

It was a vibe over there.

The group I went with made my experience the best. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people. They really made the whole festival for me.

Now I’m going to go off:

I feel like the soul of this festival is being ripped out.

Again having posters of other festivals on the bathrooms, can we get a fucking break? We are in the portal. Not your fucking marketing office.

The lack of Art at a music and ARTS festival is fucking absolutely embarrassing. How the fuck are you an event company and don’t know what that means? So many things have been taken out over the years. The dock wasn’t there. There was no shade at aqua AND ITS HOT AS FUCK OUT. no shade, no mist fans, no way they cared that people were hot. No decorations in the trees. No decorations really anywhere except a couple of stupid colored flags that they use EVERYWHERE. they took the big yellow man away. They just dropped the bomb big on the arts side.

People were spun the fuck out everywhere.

I wish wed go back to old okee. 2017 and 2018 was SUCH a vibe. It’s so sad to witness and even sadder to experience.

You walk through the grove to get into it and it’s just SIGN AFTER SIGN WITH RULES AND PROHIBITED STUFF, SIGN HERE, SIGN THERE. it was overwhelming and felt very much like a city festival. One of the first things it said was “No re-entry, once per day” excuse me? The staff had no idea what that meant, thank god it wasn’t a problem because it made NO sense. It’s the whole point of a camping festival. If they meant for the one day people that still doesn’t make any sense. They can’t go to aquachobee then back to here stage? It was very confusing.

The security was a FUCKING joke. I actually felt unsafe especially with the one day passes being sold. They didn’t search the cars at all, which okay I get they can’t pull everything out of everyone’s cars, but then in return they should be checking bags thoroughly. They didn’t scan us in 2 of the days like what? The security didn’t care and was sloppy.

Not to mention someone died in the lake. They left them there for hours to pick a time to not cause a scene.

I understand liabilities and what not, but how the fuck did this happen? How did they not say a fucking word about anything? They then put security around the lake AFTER the fact. I’m disappointed and disgusted. I understand that people are wild at these festivals but they need to do better.

The bathrooms were DISGUSTING 24/7. At 11 am still no toilet paper in the campgrounds. Wow. They really did not give an absolute fuck.

THERE WAS ONE FUCKING MED TENT AND IT WAS NOT IN THE VENUE. Why is this????? It was all the way near jungle. Would I have to run all the way from my camp site over there to get help if I needed it? I saw medics walking around but still.

Ground control was good, i felt like I saw them a lot walking around. They checked on me twice when I went off by myself.

The food wasn’t good, and it was expensive. I was talking to a friend who said some of the venders don’t make the tips? They go to the festival. I was like what?? Some of them made tips but it was up to the person who owned the booth. For the prices you pay for the food at least have it be good??

Bunk Police should be in a higher trafficked area not tucked away.

Where was Endoverdose?

The Here stage’s design was annoying cause if you weren’t in the tent it kinda sucked. They should take the ends straight out instead of folding in. Light code was a SHIT show bc of the heat.

The showers were disgusting. Some of them had no water pressure. I got lucky with mine but I saw some that were nasty and my friends had shitty experiences. They made you wait in line to buy a token to then wait in line to shower, super stupid.

Camping was chill, they usually have more porta potty’s in the campgrounds but it’s okay bc they wouldn’t have cleaned them anyway. Our spot wasn’t that far but still a walk and we got in at 12:30 pm.

GA+ is stupid and a waste of time and money. You have to buy a GA+ wristband to be in GA+ camping. So dumb.

The attendance was less than last year thank god bc last year was miserably over crowded. I think people are truly starting to see what’s going on.

Twitter and Reddit are exploding about Okee.

The art car was way too low. You couldn’t hear anything and it was isolated from the rest of the fest so you should have been able to hear it??

The Be stage again had a lower case b on it. It’s BE here now not b. Just little details like that bother me. There’s no thought or care.

I heard the pick pocketing was a problem. That just saddens me. It just feels like EDC Orlando camping. 

I said all this stuff last year and it got worse. I’m so glad people are starting to realize what’s actually going on. I just wish some artists would. Really fucking upset about it tbh. Okee was my first camping festival in 2017 and now I don’t think I want to return.

That’s all for now, next fest up for me is Sol Fest!