Breakaway Music Festival - Tampa (Day 1)

Breakaway Music Festival is a traveling music festival taking place in several cities across the country. Last night, they visited Tampa and Orlando Entertainment News was there for Day 1.

The event began at 5PM and there was just a small crowd there for the opening.

Taking place in the north lot just outside Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League.

 

There are three stages of music at Breakaway and this is the main stage.

The opener DJ Pushman (USA) was on when we arrived.

He is based here in Tampa and played mostly a EDM set with a tinge of Dubstep near the end.

Plenty of dance floor capacity here at the beginning. This would change quickly.

The second stage of music is the Launch Pad Stage.

Just a few here at the beginning.

The opener DJ Gazza (USA) was still on when we finally made it over. His set was more of the House variety.

Within minutes, there were actually more people here than at the main stage.

Shift change during our visit to the next DJ playing at Launch Pad.

Houston-based DJ MYR (USA)

He had the head-bangers banging heads!

Indeed, I overheard someone talking to a friend on their phone saying, "I'll meet you at the Dubstep stage." This was the Dubstep stage.

The third area of music was the Silent Disco stage.

You're given a set of headphones and you can switch between the Blue, Red and Green channels, each with a different genre of music being played by three different DJ's.

The earphones light-up to indicate which channel is being listened to but it's hard to tell before dark.

Everyone is asking how this compares to EDC-Orlando. Breakaway is a well-done music festival but on a far-smaller scale than EDC. There's fewer music stages, there's fewer vendors, there's fewer people. Oh, and a ticket will cost you far fewer dollars.

Some of the vendors on hand include Raise A Little Hell tequila.

Beatbox

White Claw's Shore Club.

This one is home to the Celcius Vibe Check selfie mirror where you can check yourself out!

Several retail vendors.....

.....including the Breakaway Music Festival logo store.

Plenty of loos to choose from.

Washee washee, smiley smiley, happy happy!

Heading back to the main stage.

DJ duo Rich DietZ (USA) was on!

They are pretty damn animated!

More of a House if not Tech House set.

They had the dance floor bouncing!

People always ask whether they should pay extra for VIP. This is VIP at this early hour.

And that's GA over on the other side. Both would get more-crowded, of course. Also, you saw the GA port-o-potties further up in the article. VIP gets air conditioned trailers. Because when you gotta go, you gotta go.

My favorite silent discos take place where not everyone knows what is going on. When they do one at EPCOT on NYE, for instance, most of the people walking by have no clue why all these people are singing and dancing to music they can't hear. That's not the case when they do them at music festivals and everyone is in on the gag.

Lots of mostly local DJ's staffed the Silent Disco stage.

Don't really know the Tampa-area locals very well but believe this is DJ Layne (USA).

With temps near 90F°, this was a shady respite.

If you see someone having more fun than you, check what channel they're listening to!

Fun place!

Main stage getting more populated. Let's go see what's up!

One of our favorites! DJ Kaleena Zanders (USA).

A House set all-the-way but she provides the vocals to many of her selections.

VIP beginning to fill-in.

Even more so on the GA side.

We first became acquainted with Kaleena Zanders when she played on the stereoBloom stage at EDC-Orlando in 2022.

She's almost a Gospel-like experience!

Most guests probably experiencing her for the first time.

Back to the "Dupstep" stage.

Good to see Orlando-based DJ CELO (USA).

More Heavy Bass.

Always a large crowd here.

DJ Dr. Fresch (USA) has played Orlando a number of times but we've never seen him.

Day turned into night during his set.

We would describe much of his set as Bass House.

The stages were much more impressive lighted-up.

Dance floor stayed jammed.

There was an announcement that DJ Cerveza was coming up next on the main stage. Huh? We needed to check that out. No, it was not DJ Cerveza. It was DJ Surf Mesa (USA).

It was getting really crowded now now here.

We can run into literally a hundred people we know at EDC. Over in Tampa, just a few.

Thank you everyone for your poses.

Surf Mesa is based in Seattle.

In the 8:30PM main stage time slot, DJ Disco Lines (USA).

We had never seen him play before and didn't know what to expect. But with "Disco" in his name, we were hoping for some Nu Disco at least but that was not to be. He was more on the Trap or Future Bass side of dance music.

He had the crowd bouncing though.

And with the two biggest headliners of the night coming next, it began to really get crowded.

People as far as the eye could see!

Shortly after 9:30PM.....

DJ duo Louis the Child (USA)

They were both pretty animated.

When we saw "them" in early 2022 at Zouk Nightclub in Las Vegas, we only got one of them.

Getting packed to capacity.

Cameras out for the main headliner coming on close to 11PM.

The only international DJ in yesterday's lineup.....

Hard to see him in the fog, DJ Fisher (AUS).

We had a better view of him when he played at EDC-Orlando last year, lol.

His set would run until midnight.

Packed to the rafters!

Here's the line-up and set times for Day 2 of Breakaway. It begins tonight at 5PM. Breakaway is a "traveling" music festival with upcoming events in Atlanta (with Chris Lake (GB), Illenium (USA) and Zedd (D), in Columbus (with Dom Dolla (AUS), Marshmallow (USA) and Afrojack (NL), Minneapolis-St. Paul (with John Summit (USA) and Tiësto (NL) and Grand Rapids (with Zedd (D) and Rezz (CDN). 

A really fun time!

A good time was had by all.