GroundUP Announces Diverse 2023 Festival Lineup

By DownBeat I Nov. 15, 2022

Michael League (left) and Michael Lettieri of Snarky Puppy will perform at next year’s GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach.
(Photo: Courtesy of GroundUP)

GroundUP Music Festival returns for its sixth year to the oceanside Miami Beach Bandshell in Miami Beach, Florida, Feb. 3–5, 2023. The event will once again bring an eclectic lineup of artists to the stage.

Founded in 2017 by CEO Paul Lehr, a Miami Beach native, and artistic director and Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, GroundUP Music Festival is intimate and immersive, delivering an authentic experience for a diehard following of musicians and fans from all over South Florida, the United States and the world, with a distinctly communal atmosphere in the heart of Miami Beach.

Performing all three nights is four-time Grammy-winning musical collective Snarky Puppy, delivering their highly anticipated North American debut of soulful tracks off their newly released album, Empire Central. Joining Snarky Puppy on the 2023 GroundUP Festival stage is an all-star roster of stylistically and culturally diverse festival headliners including Meshell Ndegeocello, Madison Cunningham, Jeff Tweedy, Lizz Wright and Silvana Estrada.

Other 2023 artists include Bassekou Kouyate, Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Caipi, Keyon Harrold, Gisela João, Isaiah Sharkey Quartet, Rachel Eckroth, Edmar Castañeda & Grégoire Maret, Becca Stevens & Attacca Quartet, Shaun Martin Three-O, Mirrors (featuring The Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader Louis Cato, plus Justin Stanton, Gisela João, Becca Stevens and League), Mark Lettieri Group, Jamison Ross Quintet and Artist-At-Large Isaiah Sharkey. Guitar virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, educator and activist Sharkey will play with his quartet in addition to multiple Artist-At-Large performances. Blending his background in rock, gospel, jazz, R&B, blues and funk, Sharkey has created his own original sound with a dose of soul. His sophomore album Love Is The Key: The Cancerian Theme was released in June 2019. During the pandemic shutdown, Sharkey wrote and recorded with music colleagues including Cory Henry and Common.

Known for its relaxed, intimate atmosphere, with wildly eclectic, dynamic lineups of hard-to-define artists, GroundUP defies genre, creating a laid-back oasis of true community, steps from the sands of Miami Beach.

“GroundUP Festival has always had the same spirit,” said League. “It’s always been about curating a wide range of music experiences you would never otherwise have all at one festival. We create a blank canvas for these artists to paint on, while keeping the same ideology behind the festival completely consistent. The integrity of the GroundUP experience is very, very important.”

True to the heart of the festival since its 2017 inception, one of the most central aspects to the GroundUP ethos is diversity in every sense of the word — diversity of genre, style, geography, culture, race, age and gender — as well as remarkable diversity among artists and attendees. GroundUP pairs unexpected combinations of sound into a seamlessly authentic lineup, allowing the individual stories of the artists to shine.

New this year, GroundUP’s Late Night Sets, which run from 12–4 a.m. nightly after the Miami Beach Bandshell sets conclude, will take place at the iconic Faena Theater at Miami’s premier arts and culture hotel, Faena Hotel Miami Beach. The Faena Theater is an intimate setting evoking the grand style of European opera houses combined with the glamor of 1950s Miami. Only 250 Late Night tickets will be available per night, and will be sold exclusively to festival ticket holders.

For more details on the full lineup and descriptions of other headlining artists, follow along on the GroundUP Music Festival Instagram and visit the festival website. Tickets are available now, with Early Bird pricing through Thanksgiving Day, and payment plans available with a 20% deposit. Click here for GA tickets and VIP packages. DB