By NewsLine Staff
mail@floridanewsline.com
The inaugural Sing Out Loud Festival welcomed an estimated 15,000 music fans, featured 315 performing artists at 10 venues around St. Augustine and raised more than $12,000 for the OneOrlando Fund. The Festival kicked off on Aug. 25 at the Café Alcazar in the Lightner Museum and celebrated with a finale event on Sept. 11 in the Backyard at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.
Over the course of three weekends, approximately 15,000 people took in 124 performances at 10 venues around St. Augustine, solidifying the Sing Out Loud Festival as the largest free musical festival ever held in St. Johns County. One of the biggest highlights of the Festival was the multitude of local acts that performed.
Ryan Murphy, director of the St. Johns County Cultural Events Division, which organized the Sing Out Loud Festival, said, “The inaugural Sing Out Loud Festival was truly a community-wide celebration and partnership. Never before have so many local artists come together, under one umbrella, to represent and celebrate what the St. Augustine music scene has to offer. This unity and collaboration really illustrates the spirit of the music community and the direction in which we are heading.”
Each day of the Festival, local musicians had the opportunity to not only play to new audiences, but play for each other, talk about future projects and cheer each other on.
Jeanetta Sayler, lead vocalist for Ramona Quimby, said, “St. Augustine Amphitheatre and the Sing Out Loud Fest are both a true testimony of the amount of effort, talent, spirit and magic that exists within a community of creators when they are allowed to become inspired and encouraged to be who they are.”
Ramona Quimby was recently announced as the winner of the Sing Out Loud Fest “What’s Hot” contest, securing more than 130 likes for their band on the Fest app. As the winner, Ramona Quimby will be the featured act at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre Backyard Sing Out Loud Showcase on Friday, Nov. 4.
Another important highlight of the Festival was the number of OneOrlando donation tickets purchased for the Sept. 9 Main Showcase event featuring The Indigo Girls, The Lone Bellow and more; 2,411 OneOrlando donation tickets were purchased, resulting in $12,055.00 raised for the OneOrlando Fund, a 50l(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official fund for the survivors and victims’ families of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy in Orlando, Florida.
The Sing Out Loud Festival was directly supported by local businesses committed to supporting the arts including presenting Festival sponsor Community First Credit Union, who made a multi-year commitment to the Festival.
Visit www.singoutloudfestival.com or www.facebook.com/singoutloudsjc for more information or for a complete list of performers.
Photo courtesy Tucker Joenz
Plaza Gazebo
