Love This Schedule for Whippersnap Music & Arts Festival!
The renovated and relocated Whippersnap Music & Arts Festival will descend upon Florida Sand Music Ranch in Brooksville, Florida, February 22-24. We’ve seen the full lineup, but now we are enjoying the schedule. CORRECTION: the two stages are at opposite ends of the facility, but they are only a short distance apart.
The organizers have also issued the activities and children’s events schedules. Let’s dive in!
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Serious talk! If you are there Thursday, be sure you catch the opening group, Sooza Brass Band from Gainesville: five horns and a drummer doing funk, disco, and metal! Pure dynamite on its way from Jacksonville’s Sauce Pocket crammed with funk and fusion. Naples rockers Moonstone Riders are up next, followed by Barefoot Fred.
It has been five years since The New Mastersounds played in the U.S. They are about to hop on Jam Cruise but are making Whippersnap their first stop. They’ve been pumping out incredible boogaloo jazz, funk, fusion, and jazz since since 2000! Two sets!
Guavatron from West Palm Beach offer up some of the best trance-dance jamtronic funk prog… well, you know… they are brilliant.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23
Tamayo from Gainesville open day two with their thoughtful, distinctive grooves. Boxcar Hollow continue to play the widest mix of music in their bluegrass-y format, from Americana and the aforementioned bluegrass to soul and rap! We’re excited to check out psychedelic funk fusion band Bodhicitta, coming in out of the Wisconsin cold. Excellent seven-man ensemble Matcha delighted at Suwannee Hulaween, a welcome addition to the lineup.
Most know that the members of Tire Fire represent the very best of that Florida Georgia line. Georgia’s contribution is the powerhouse funk band appropriately named Funk You; they back it up! Always welcome on any lineup: Antelope: A Tribute To The Band Phish, loaded with talent. St. Petersburg’s “newcomer” darlings MiniM have been crushing concert and festival performances alike.
Ajeva, practically old-school at a decade in St. Petersburg, have truly launched themselves, including a great opening set at North Beach Music Festival.
The seven members of Cool Cool Cool who bifurcated from Turkuaz (plus Digo on bass) have transformed into a true tour de force with fabulous shows of their own and brilliant tours supporting Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew and their Remain in Light project. Whippersnap is lucky to catch them before they play the Jam Cruise pre-party and then hop on the boat for more.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24
You don’t want to miss the awesomeness of the young men and women from Sgammato Music School Showcase proving definitely that music is in great hands. Vocalist Kat Hines takes the stage next before wonderful new collaborative project Light the Wire takes you soaring. The Family Funk, that ensemble of musicians who play at Ruby’s and elsewhere in St. Petersburg, are performing a tribute to The Band.
School master Chris Sgammato and his dynamite band Displace will do their regular thing: spanning genres with the greatest of ease. It’s about time for some Chicago blues, and The Frank Bang 4 will deliver just that, with Bang on guitar and… tool box! The jam-funk is strong with Cocoa’s Tru Phonic, followed by venerable band The Heavy Pets, delighting crowds for two decades and playing better than ever!
What would a festival be without an injection of New Orleans magic? Exactly, which is why John Papa Gros is bringing the funk, R&B, and Americana to Whippersnap, NOLA style.
TAUK Moore have the honor of shutting down this revived Whippersnap Festival. They say the sum is greater than the parts, and here we have the perfect example. TAUK are a brilliant prog-fusion-funk quartet from Montauk who also have two decades behind them as they continue to go stratospheric. And they are matched up with the stunning, spectacular vocalist Kanika Moore. Their shows together are the very definition of incendiary!
Not enough? How about guitarist and band assembler Joe Marcinek and vocalist extraordinaire Jessica Jones as artists at large? You bet!
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