Gabriel Pellicer describes the Sing Out Loud Live Festival’s Wildly Showcase in downtown St. Augustine, Fla., as a convergence of history, passion and purpose.
“It’s a festival with a message,” explains Pellicer, who works as the CEO of SJC Portfolio Events, which manages Florida’s St. Augustine Amphitheater and Ponte Vedra Concert Hall and hosts a number of festivals in what historians say is the oldest city in the U.S., which is located about 40 miles southeast of Jacksonville and 70 miles east of Gainesville.
Over the weekend of Sept. 21 and 22, 27,000 music fans attended the annual showcase, which was headlined this year by Eric Church and Noah Kahan with appearances by marquee acts including Molly Tuttle and Norah Jones, Ryan Bingham with the Texas Gentlemen, JJ Grey & Mofro, Ole 60, The Breeders, Marcus King, Sierra Ferrell, Kevin Morby, and Nat & Alex Wolff. The showcase generated more than $160,000 from ticket sales in support of land conservation in St. Johns County and efforts to build a wildlife corridor between South and North Florida.
“The primary intention is to try to keep as much wild Florida wild as possible,” Pellicer said.
“The idea for the [Sing Out Loud] Festival began in 2013 when Mumford & Sons brought their Gentlemen of the Road to St. Augustine,” Pellicer recalls. “It was a September event. Because we’re a historic town in Florida, the number one economy is tourism. And we have these peaks and these valleys. August and September usually tapers off, especially after Labor Day. School gets back in session, and it just slows down. And we saw that as an opportunity.”
Beyond the performances, this year’s Sing Out Loud Festival offered immersive experiences allowing fans to walk through a recreated wildlife corridor, navigate local state parks via interactive maps and interact with giant inflatable representations of Florida’s iconic panthers, manatees and alligators.
“It has been such an honor partnering with the festival and having such a big audience to be able to sing the praises of how cool wild Florida is,” says Sara Sheehy, director of storytelling and the lead adventurist for Live Wildly. “One of the things that I am super passionate about is getting people out to experience the real wild Florida and so when any of the bands here at Sing Loud express interest, I’m like, “Where do you wanna go? I’ll take you anywhere in wild Florida that you want to experience.”
That includes taking several artists to a Guano Reserve along an untouched stretch of coastline just north of St. Augustine.
“It has these pristine dunes we explored, then [we] jumped in the water and spent some time looking for shark’s teeth on the beach,” says Sheehy. “Any chance that I have to get artists or anybody, literally anybody, into the wild, that is the end goal for me. Getting them to experience the wildness and the beauty of this place. It is beautiful here.”
As the festival continues to grow, its commitment to pairing live music with meaningful community initiatives remains at the forefront. Sing Out Loud Festival organizers plan to build on their momentum in the years to come, expanding their live music footprint while building upon their conservation efforts in the Southeast of the state.
