Jupiter Harbourfest is a festival taking place at the Plaza Down Under at Riverwalk in Jupiter, Fla. on the weekend of Oct. 18 – 19. On both days the event will be held from 12-8 p.m. The festival will be offering food vendors, live music from local bands and other activities for everyone in the family.
The festival is meant to serve as a community event specifically for Jupiter, bringing citizens’ attention towards the Plaza Down Under and Harbourside Place.
“What we’re doing is to try to bring Jupiter a local festival,” Cressa Bronson, employee at the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce, one of the organizations behind the event, said. “It’s all local vendors, all Jupiter food trucks and all Jupiter and regional bands and artists performing.”
Anyone interested in attending can purchase tickets online ahead of time on the Jupiter Harbourside website for $10. If someone wants to buy tickets the day of the event will be sold for $15. Amenities such as food tastings will be offered for $75, as well as the option for VIP tickets for $125.
The theme of the music is coastal country, including the Caribbean Chillers, MixTape and other local Floridian bands. Staff at the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce reported that Inspirations were taken from the folk, country and rock music style of Jimmy Buffett, an American musician.
Preparation for the event has been ongoing since Feb. of this year, with the idea for it coming originally from the Town of Jupiter. The festival is hosted by the Town of Jupiter, presented by Jupiter Medical Center and produced by the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce.
“Jupiter Harbourfest kind of came together through a collaboration with the town, they had approached us wanting to do an event/festival in the town of Jupiter,” Cara Sentelik, Director of Marketing and Communications, said. “From there, we at the chamber kind of brainstormed the idea of a music festival and collaborated to get to where Jupiter Harbourfest is today.”
The Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce is behind many events like this one, such as the Artigras Fine Arts Festival and the Tampa General Hospital Loggerhead Triathlon. However, they had to put in more effort towards Harbourfest due to some differences between other events.
“It’s so much since it is a first-time event,” Bronson said.
Behind-the-scenes work the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce did for this event was extensive, with a focus on press and getting the word out for a good turnout.
“We created a commercial that I think has been doing really well, we have that on all the different streaming platforms locally,” Sentelik said.
Other promotions took the form of physical banners and flyers, billboards and bus wraps circulating the city. Many of these banners can be seen along Indiantown Rd. and on the way to Jupiter High School.
“We really have a variety of different media and press advertising Harbourfest out right now. We wanted to take a two-pronged approach of both physical as well as digital media. What we’ve been able to track so far from the digital media has been working really well,” Sentelik said.
Other planning efforts include working with the city to get the venue and bridge reserved, accounting for safety, food or parking. The Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce also needs to contact and reserve businesses and bands for the festival.
“It helps to have relationships already with different food vendors and relationships with different local bands. It’s nice to have that community support,” Sentelik said.
As the result of a collaborative project, Jupiter Harbourfest is projected to be a successful and fulfilling event that can give the citizens of Jupiter something to look forward to during Fla.’s fall season.
“We love supporting the community however we can, we always try to look for ways to innovate and provide more resources for the community,” Sentelik said.
