{"id":734619,"date":"2026-04-17T14:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/734619\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:39:15","slug":"big-culture-arts-festival-returns-to-gainesville-with-more-than-100-acts-jacksonville-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/734619\/","title":{"rendered":"Big: Culture & Arts Festival returns to Gainesville with more than 100 acts, Jacksonville artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Big: Culture & Arts Festival returned for its fourth consecutive year, blending nationally touring musicians, circus arts and street culture while spotlighting Florida artists, including some from Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

The festival ran from April 10-12 featuring more than 100 performers across genres from rap and R&B to neo-soul, drum and bass, garage, house and indie rock. Headliners include Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, Zack Fox & UWAY, Navy Blue, MAVI, Rae Khalil, Liv.e, Chanpan, redveil and Pink Siifu, with Ovrkast., Kelly Moonstone, Cleo Reed and Chuck Strangers among others.<\/p>\n

Those national acts shared bills with Florida-based artists and collectives, including 00JORDIE, Machina Records, Flozigg, Mijita, The Nancys, Buboy, Camp Blu, Cannibal Kids, Jolt Radio and Jacksonville artist Nikayla and the phuNk<\/p>\n

The art block featured live paintings from Jacksonville artists like Metamorphvic.<\/p>\n

Click through the gallery above.<\/b><\/p>\n

The festival spread across a downtown footprint with eight stages \u2014 three outdoor stages and five venue stages \u2014 letting ticketholders move among performances at longtime Gainesville music anchors. Programming also includes a film screening from Miami\u2019s Subtropic Film Festival, visual art installations, live painting and screen printing, fashion shows featuring Florida designers, a car show, panel discussions on art and activism, interactive workshops, a surprise parade and a full schedule of circus and aerialist performances.<\/p>\n

What began as an independent record label and a series of silent discos evolved into How Bazar, a brick-and-mortar event space and shop that brought artisan makers, performances and workshops across Florida last year in an effort to unite the state\u2019s creative communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the national and touring artists on the lineup are friends who often collaborate with each other, so this creates an energy much like a summer camp or a family reunion. We want everyone attending Big to feel that kind of comfort, friendliness and openness to connect with other people,\u201d Laila Fakhoury said, a co-producer of the event. \u201cWe also worked really hard to represent cities across Florida with our artist line-up. Since Florida can feel like a forgotten state in terms of artists rarely touring here, this feels like a great opportunity to elevate and uplift Florida talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

A small team led by Fakhoury and Jahi Khalfani said the festival aims to be a sustainable, Florida-based staple that helps build community and support creative economies across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig represents a continuation of growth and progression of a vision that has been really intentional from day one: we want to build this into a sustainable, Florida-based staple,\u201d Fakhoury said. \u201cWe\u2019ve built trust and a reputation with our communities, and people are pouring themselves back into this project, ultimately creating a positive economy that we hope can support creatives in Florida and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Big: Culture & Arts Festival returned for its fourth consecutive year, blending nationally touring musicians,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":734620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,171,3188,723,13102,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-734619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-entertainment","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-gainesville","tag-jacksonville","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116420566936994991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}