Big Guava Music Festival

Big Guava Music Festival was a multi-genre music festival held at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida. Organized by Live Nation Florida, it ran for two editions in 2014 and 2015 before being discontinued in 2016 due to low attendance and competition from other Florida festivals.

What Was Big Guava

Live Nation and the Florida State Fair Authority launched Big Guava in 2014, combining elements from two earlier failed Tampa festivals (Funshine and Coastline) into a new event. The festival featured four stages of live music alongside a carnival midway with free unlimited rides, food trucks, and craft beer gardens.

The inaugural edition ran May 2 to 4, 2014, headlined by the recently reunited Outkast. The lineup also included Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, HAIM, Girl Talk, Tegan and Sara, Twenty One Pilots, Chance the Rapper, and Grouplove. Three-day early bird passes started at $99.

The 2015 edition scaled back to two days (May 9 to 10) with headliners The Strokes and Pixies, plus Run the Jewels, Hozier, Passion Pit, Ryan Adams, and Pretty Lights. Attendance fell well below expectations, with organizers expecting roughly three times the actual turnout.

Why Big Guava Was Discontinued

Live Nation announced in January 2016 that Big Guava would not return that year. The company cited "an overabundance of returning and new festivals in Florida in 2016" as the primary reason. The launch of Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival in South Florida also created direct competition for the same audience.

The festival never returned after 2016. Big Guava joined a list of discontinued Tampa-area festivals including Coastline and Coral Skies, reflecting the difficulty of sustaining a large-scale music festival in the Tampa market.

What Replaced It

Florida's festival landscape has since shifted. Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival, launched in 2016 in Okeechobee, FL, became the state's primary multi-genre camping festival. Tampa-based music fans now travel to festivals like Okeechobee, Bonnaroo, and Coachella for large-scale lineups.

For artists, the disappearance of Big Guava reduced the number of mid-size festival booking opportunities in central Florida. Smaller regional events like Sunset Music Festival and 97X shows continue to serve the Tampa Bay area.

Lessons for Independent Artists

The Big Guava story illustrates how volatile the festival market can be. Festivals fold when attendance does not justify production costs, and artists who build their touring strategy around a single festival are vulnerable to cancellation.

Diversify your festival bookings across multiple events and regions. If a festival cancels, having backup dates at other events keeps your touring schedule intact. Read our music festival strategy guide for building a resilient festival booking approach.

Use our tour revenue calculator to model different touring scenarios so you are not dependent on any single festival date.

Related Resources

• Music Festival Strategy: Get Booked and Make It Count
• How to Book Your First Tour: Step-by-Step Guide
• 21 Ways Musicians Can Earn Income
• Tour Revenue Calculator
• Streaming Royalty Calculator