WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Two new music festivals, Palm Tree Music Festival and We Belong Here, claim they’re selling an overwhelming majority of tickets available, according to ticket sale data WPTV found on both festivals’ websites.
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Both music festivals are debuting in West Palm Beach for the first time within the next three months, with We Belong Here running Saturday and Sunday. The ticket sale data comes after SunFest, the city’s longtime preeminent music festival, announced it was canceling its 2025 festival last year.
According to We Belong Here, they’ve sold 95% of their tickets for admission to their two-day event at Meyer Amphitheater, as of Friday afternoon. The tickets cost about $300, according to the website.
The Palm Tree Music Festival said it has sold out of every ticket for its one-day event Feb. 14 on the West Palm Beach Waterfront Landing. Those tickets started at $129, but the price increased significantly as more people bought tickets to the event.
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According to tax records, the nonprofit that organizes SunFest lost $3 million in a two-year period. Their latest tax filing for 2025 shows expenses dropped from $7.1 million to around $660,694 in a one-year period, a 90.7% decrease. However, the nonprofit still lost about $292,000.
SunFest told the IRS the financial struggles, declining attendance and challenges within the music festival industry led it focus on smaller events like the Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival.
Daniel Goode, the group’s executive director, said SunFest is working with a consultant for the Palm Tree Music Festival. He said these two new festivals reflect a “changing” West Palm Beach and have done a good job focusing on smaller niche audiences, like electronic dance music (EDM).
“They’ve done a real good job capturing a smaller audience and doing it at a higher end,” Goode said to WPTV’s Ethan Stein.
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He also said SunFest struggled to book acts as other festivals and venues put restrictions on talent performing at nearby venues like Hard Rock Live and festivals like Tortuga Music Festival.
WPTV reported the contract Palm Tree Music Festival received was nearly identical to SunFest’s contract, but Goode said his organization is just serving as a consultant for the new music festival rather then acting as the “significant shift” the nonprofit noted in November 2024.
