Tortuga Music Festival's Chris Stacey and A.J. Niland on What to Wear and Who to Bring to the Festival

By Liz Tracy Thu., Mar. 21 2013 at 12:09 PM

Categories: Festival Days, Tortuga Music Festival

Screen Shot 2013-03-21 at 11.59.37 AM.png

Where the Tortuga magic will happen.

It's still a month off, and advance and early bird tickets for the inaugural Tortuga Music Festival are almost entirely sold out. That's not to say that you still can't gain entrance to see the Fort Lauderdale Beach fest with Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, the Avett Brothers, and other big acts. These sort of sales are just impressive for any festival here in South Florida. Remember Langerado?

The reason for its success is two-fold. Chris Stacey, former area local and head of Warner Bros. Records Radio Promo and founder of Rock the Ocean Foundation, brought his sonic expertise and paired it up with longtime festival planner AJ Niland. The latter is also planning the Tom Petty and Stevie Wonder-headlined, seaside Hangout Beach Music and Arts Festival in Alabama. Niland made the good point: "You'd rather be on the beach than just about anywhere else on a regular day, why not hear the music you love as well?"

What follows is an interview we did with these two cofounders of Tortuga at the spot where the event will take place this April. We heavily discussed the inspiration for the event, the turtles.