Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be yet another music festival in Tampa Bay, one materializes on the concert radar and demands your immediate attention. This time around, it’s the inaugural Coastline Festival, a “Musiculinary Experience” staged in two cities (Tampa and West Palm Beach), and touching on today’s hottest hipster-approved trends in music, food and beer.
Two stages feature no overlapping set-times (so you don’t miss a thing), and the impressive lineup encompasses 10 much-buzzed-about national acts joined by a few high-caliber local performers (Polyenso and Zulu Wave; story on the latter here).
Among the national highlights are Billboard-charting wonky, upbeat synth-pop purveyors Passion Pit, their tunes driven by the blissful falsetto vocals of frontman Michael Angelakos and carried on plenty of pounding bass and beats. Also noteworthy: Irish dance-punk/New Wave-flavored alt-rock outfit Two Door Cinema Club; the neo-soulful Los Angeles sextet featuring co-ed vocalists, Fitz and the Tantrums; and another LA act, Blondfire, their fuzzy dreamy pop-tronic sonic vibe and boy-girl duo lineup (siblings Bruce and Erica Driscoll) sure to woo fans of Phantogram.
In addition to the music, the amphitheater expands its outer reach to include a “Craft Beer Cove” with selections ranging from Tampa’s own Cigar City and Florida Avenue ales to Atlanta’s Sweetwater brews to Hawaii’s Kona Longboard; a “Foodtrucktropia” with offerings by Taco Bus, Pao Truck and Pitas on the Run among others; and an “Isle of Art” with works by predominantly Florida and locally-based artists with some national and international talent included.
