You would think that a music festival would increase its headliners and number of artists performing each year it has been around, but apparently that logic doesn’t apply to the 2019 Gasparilla Music Festival. With only two main headliners of The Avett Brothers and Gary Clark Jr., this year’s festival is a disappointment to Florida music fans. 

The festival is coming up to its eighth year March 9–10, and so far, has a trend of increasing its artists size and popularity of the performers until now. Going from the Roots, Father John Misty, Spoon and Warpaint, just to name a few, to only two artists that do not compete in size to their predecessors leaves me questioning what happened.  

For seven years, there has been a consistent theme of pulling more and substantial performers. The only reason that comes to mind for a decrease in significant headliners is funding reasons, but it seems like last year was a huge hit for music lovers.  

Although there are still more artists to be announced, it will not be any more major headliners, only smaller musicians to fill up the stages. The bands they chose are not bad and are so far not playing any other festival, which gives the Tampa festival some exclusivity, but it doesn’t meet the standards of each year having a better, bigger festival. 

This festival also doesn’t have much competition with other Florida festivals since a prime one, Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival, is leaving the land fallow this year, taking them out of the fans’ festival choices. So, with more festival-goers having their eyes on this one, the creators have more of an incentive to have leading musicians come to Tampa since it will pay off.  

The festival scene is getting more competitive and aggressive with the creation of new ones and the assortment each brings, which makes each year harder in deciding where fans want to drop over $300 on a festival.  

It is interesting because last year and every year before had major artists to music fans and had a diversified lineup. While this year, the Avett Brothers and Gary Clark Jr. are both rock musicians to simply describe them. In the whole lineup, Toro Y Moi and Parrotfish are sure to bring a good show, but an over $100 fee for two artists is not worth it.  

It’s sad to see a festival that has been so steady in bringing a variety of headliners to perform now break that trend. But that’s not to say the smaller bands don’t create an array of genres or are bad, since they typically make festivals what they are. Yet the average person buys a ticket to see people they know and will get their money’s worth of seeing enough musicians.  

Maybe my logic is different from others, but if I’m going to spend my money on a festival, I would like to hear musicians I know of because of the uncertainty of having another chance to see them again.  

With more and more artists coming to Tampa and our home becoming a major stop for musicians, there is more of a reason for management to add more notable bands, which in part is from the festival increasing in importance.  

Maybe I’m being too critical, but from what Florida fans have been getting from past Gasparilla Music Festival lineups, it’s a downgrade. I hope I’m wrong and they bring in some more musicians to follow up on the two headliners, but for now the Gasparilla Music Festival will not be receiving my attendance this year.