Sit Down with the Producer: Kevin Collinsworth, CEO, Okeechobee Music Festival

Kevin Collinsworth, CEO, Soundslinger

Like many music festival producers, Kevin Collinsworth knows some of the best events head off-stage to deliver a memorable camping adventure. And he’s not bashful about what he’s got in the spread that’s home to the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival (OMF) each spring.

The sprawling 800-acre property just northeast of Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida creates a stellar destination for festival camping enthusiasts. From car camping to RV glamping, Collinsworth, 46, and his team at Soundslinger LLC spent almost a full year since OMF 2017 relocating and planting trees, creating new areas, and leveling grounds to elevate any style of camping outing.

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11 Tips to Elevating Your Festival Experience – Part 1

Festival season will soon be upon us. So here is our first set of RoadtripMojo’s Top 20 Festival Survival Tips. With many multi-day fests and destination music events under our belt, some of these you may already know or find completely obvious. Some you may never have thought of. Even for those with fest experience, it’s easy to throw caution to the wind – or just forget the essentials – especially when the indescribable buzz of entering the festival grounds kicks in.

So RoadtripMojo and our resident Hippie Chick have a few tips to share so you won’t be That Guy – or Gal

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Bought Your Trailer? How to Buy Your First Tow Vehicle (Part 2)

Donkey Jr. hitched to Mr. Charlie and ready to go.

They say to “buy your second RV first.” But it’s best to buy your tow vehicle second. The tale of our purchase of Mr. Charlie our travel trailer discussed the thinking that drove our decision. We wanted a slide-out, a private master bedroom, an outdoor kitchen that would make us the envy of mornings at the music festival – all in a unit close to 21 feet or so. We settled on 25 feet, and were – and remain – thrilled with our buy.

But between the day we put money down on the trailer and drove her off the lot about four weeks later, we had a minor detail to address: the tow vehicle.

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What is “Glamping”?

Whether visiting a music festival or some RV park, the definition of “glamping” doesn’t change by venue. But what is “glamping” anyway? And why does it elicit either favor or scorn, depending on the campers?

Image courtesy nicolemarierichardson.com

Some people “rough it” or “primitive” camp. They pack in their supplies, pitch tents in wooded areas or open fields, and then pack out the lot afterward. They deal with dirt, bugs, and those things generally found in, well, the outdoors.

Some car camp, driving to their campsite and pitching their tent beside the car. They can secure their belongings in the locked ride, and tap the car battery for a quick boost of the cell phone. Or, as happened once to our crew, find shelter in the car when a storm threatened – something tenters were explicitly warned against over the festival loudspeakers.

Then there’s “glamping.”

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Our Path to (Re)Discovery of Camping & Festivals (Part 1)

Back when I was 10 or so, my father used to take me camping. When we weren’t tenting beneath the oak forest canopy on the banks of Fisheating Creek, we were hiking through Old Florida pine scrub on the Florida Trail north from U.S. 41 toward Alligator Alley. Those times we did Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground, the kids would stay in a rented trailer. He’d pitch his tent out back. He was that kind of camper. 

Mr. Charlie & Donkey Jr.

About the same time and about 1,500 miles to the north, a girl I’d meet a decade later was camping with her family. They’d tow the family trailer from Toronto to places like Lake Nipissing or Algonquin Park in northern Ontario. They were another kind of camper.

For two families, this was camping. Four decades later, we’re camping again, tho’ our “lodging” of choice might have my dear ol’ dad (RIP) spinning in his REI goose down sleeping bag…

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