SunFest, Palm Beach County’s largest live music event, has come to an end, for now, after 40 festivals in a 42-year span. Interrupted only by the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival drew millions of people to the city’s waterfront over the years, bringing some of music’s biggest names to generations of fans gathered along the Intracoastal Waterway.
South Florida’s oldest music festival grew over the decades in stature and ambition, evolving from a sleepy jazz-and-art festival into a three-stage, five-day event that drew A-list performers, hundreds of thousands of revelers and millions of dollars a year in revenue.
It has offered a combination of live music, art, delicious foods (stuffed tropical pineapple chicken was a yearly favorite), drinks and family-friendly entertainment.
In a November, SunFest’s organizers announced the show would not go on in 2025, and possibly never again. Regardless, we’ll never forget those years.
The Palm Beach Post received numerous e-mails from readers on those moments. Here are a few of them (some have been lightly edited):
A year-by-year trip down memory lane: The bands, food, ticket prices and images
SUNFEST: Debut in 1983 was a free 10-day festival with a high-wire act
‘A vicious cycle’: SunFest’s big music bet thrilled millions, then drove it out of business
SUNFEST: Will SunFest return to West Palm Beach? First, ‘something’s got to change,’ director says
James Coleman is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at jcoleman@pbpost.com and follow him on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @JimColeman11. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
Our readers respond: Here are your favorite SunFest memories from the 40 festivals – The Palm Beach Post
