SunFest

SunFest is the festival on the downtown waterfront in West Palm Beach, by the Intracoastal. It was founded in 1982. In 2019 there were four days, about 130,000 people, three stages, mud, rain boots and sunblock. A portable bathroom cost 8 dollars. The free ones were pitch dark. A floating bar had a line of about a thousand people. The mud took the flip-flops. There is no company name. In 2018 the Wednesday was dropped and it opened a day later than other times. The photos from that weekend are by Michelle Eve Sandberg.

On Saturday in 2019, before the rain, Ludacris came on at 3 p.m. with Welcome to Atlanta and Number One Spot. In the set are Area Code, Pimpin' All Over the World, Act a Fool, and the collaborations Money Maker, Yeah! and Glamorous. He called for a shout from the Asians, the Latinos and the black people, and almost nobody answered. He laughed and said he had sold more than 20 million albums, and would the white people make some noise. The field, sunburned and about thirty, went ballistic. He announced he would start filming Fast and Furious 9. On another stage, the B-52's. Cindy Wilson, shiny blue jumpsuit and bouffant, played small bongos. Out came Rock Lobster, Private Idaho, Roam, and a Love Shack blended with the riff of Low Rider, by War. Kate Pierson wore gold lamé, red hair the same as her lips and eyeshadow, and the band had been going more than 40 years. Fred Schneider, with a slide-whistle, said that if the crowd were not there, there would be no audience.

RetroRev came on when the screens were already flashing rain. Almost nobody. He sang about being faithful, about a wife, about children. AfterMidNight did not fill either: they were off-key, and more people left than arrived. Des Rocs, the New York trio, emptied that. Danny Rocco, who had been a Sony lawyer and at SunFest 2016 was with Secret Weapons, opened the field. Left in the set are Outta My Mind, Here's to the Darkness, Let Me Live/Let Me Die and SLO. On Give Me The Night he climbed a bass drum, hoisted a cymbal while the drummer kept playing, and jumped down. Wendy Rhodes leaves him between Paul Stanley, Billy Squire and Elvis. He said: I'm Des Rocs, and I'm not fucking around. Papa Roach opened with Last Resort, then Help and Getting Away With Murder. Jacoby Shaddix went into the crowd on Elevate and dedicated Traumatic to the savages in the pit.

As the sun set, Diplo had the biggest crowd of the day. He was coming from the Billboard party in Las Vegas. In the air were La Macarena, by Los Del Rio, Usher's Yeah!, Girlfriend in the spelling Avril Levine, Take On Me, Hey Ya! and High Hopes. As tracks, Heads Will Roll, Crank That, Earthquake and Sicko Mode. He closed with Get it Right. Streamers, smoke, fire and three screens: a rainforest, endless doorways, and a naked woman sitting on a mushroom. There was a green and yellow dinosaur costume, a child in a unicorn horn, and barefoot people in glitter. At the end the shoes were missing. On Sunday 5 May, Tears for Fears canceled because of the weather. Keith Urban wrote that Miami airport was closed, that they were in an Uber as if the driver had stolen it, and that they would be late. The text says the weather shut his plane out of Palm Beach International. He arrived, late.

Angel Melendez walked 2018. The Thursday before his text of 7 May: Billy Idol, Girl Talk with no single title, and Logic, who filled the place with high-school kids. On Friday, Incubus on the amphitheater hills, and Zedd with more people, flames on the stage. A remix of (I've Had) The Time of My Life moved more bodies than the nineties rock. He put on Bohemian Rhapsody, a drop at the crescendo, and went into Humble, by Kendrick Lamar. Saturday was the weak day. Past the Ford Stage, the Art District: murals painted on the spot, jugglers with bowling pins, balloons. The last day smelled like a wet dog. Sublime with Rome and Third Eye Blind played at the same time. On the JetBlue stage, DNCE, with Joe Jonas, rock, funk and disco, and shout-outs to Britney, Kanye, the Spice Girls and Rod Stewart, with no single title. Then a gap until Pitbull, also with no title. DaFeauxNito seemed corny to him. Sonali, boring. Malu Trevejo, 15, Cuban-American, did the whole set to a track. On the Wednesday of the text dated 4 May, Weezer on the Ford Stage. Rivers Cuomo wore a crown and a cape. A glowing W. No introduction, Hash Pipe. Then My Name Is Jonas, I Want You To and Pork and Beans. Feels Like Summer was the new single: it sounds like July and tells of an ex who died. Beverly Hills, Island in the Sun, King of the World, Say It Ain't So and El Scorcho, from Pinkerton. They closed with Buddy Holly, and the crowd sang louder than he did. Beside them, the Intracoastal.

One Republic is not OneRepublic. Avril Levine is not Avril Lavigne. Billy Squire is not Billy Squier. Yeah! is in Ludacris's set and, as Usher's sample, in Diplo's. Love Shack is not Low Rider: they are blended. The plane that cannot land at Palm Beach is not the closed Miami airport. 8 dollars is not the dark bathroom. 130,000 is the 2019 weekend, not one day. The Wednesday cut in 2018 is not Weezer's Wednesday. Sublime with Rome at the same time as Third Eye Blind is not one stage. Feels Like Summer is not a July song of the festival: July is how it sounds. 1982 is not 2016, and 2016 is not the Saturday of 2019 or 5 May. Tears for Fears did not play. Get it Right did, and the shoes did not turn up.