A reggae-rock festival originally billed for the open waterfront of the St. Pete Pier is instead packing into a much smaller downtown courtyard this Friday, and it has already sold out. On High Florida, headlined by Pepper and The Movement, was quietly relocated from Spa Beach at the Pier to Jannus Live, a change that shrank the show's capacity from roughly 10,000 to about 2,000 attendees.
The festival was originally scheduled at Spa Beach, the St. Pete Pier's outdoor venue that opened in late 2023 with a 10,000-person capacity built specifically to host large waterfront concert series, according to the Tampa Bay Times. But per Event Live, the August 28 show was officially moved to Jannus Live in downtown St. Petersburg's historic district, with tickets purchased through the original primary platform still honored at the new location. Jannus Live's outdoor courtyard, at 200 First Ave N, holds approximately 2,000 people, a fraction of the Pier's footprint, according to its Wikipedia entry.
That smaller footprint appears to have worked in the festival's favor from a demand standpoint. The show at Jannus Live officially sold out, according to the venue's own event listing. As Creative Loafing Tampa reported, tickets had started at $40.66 and remained available in the run-up to the one-day event, which the outlet's Ray Roa described as a halfway-to-Reggae-Rise-Up-style concert.
A Roster Built Around Reggae-Rock Royalty
Topping the bill is Pepper, a reggae-rock trio from Hawaii's Big Island formed in 1996, whose members include Kaleo Wassman, Bret Bollinger, and Yesod Williams. The band topped the Billboard Reggae Albums chart with its 2019 release Local Motion and runs its own independent label, LAW Records, according to MOKB Presents. Co-headlining is The Movement, a reggae-rock group from South Carolina established in 2003 that has landed multiple Billboard Reggae Album No. 1 debuts, including One More Night, Golden, Ways of the World, and 2025's Visions, per Wikipedia.
The lineup also folds in hip-hop, pairing Brother Ali and the duo The Grouch & Eligh alongside the reggae acts. That genre-blending reflects an ongoing curation approach from the festival's promoter, which has regularly paired underground hip-hop artists like Atmosphere and Ludacris with its coastal reggae bookings, per Vivid Seats. Rounding out the bill is Carter Reeves, who brings his reggae-pop project Surfer Girl to the festival, according to Creative Loafing Tampa.
Part of a Bigger Festival Ecosystem
On High is produced by LNE Presents, a Salt Lake City-based live promotion company founded by Vaughn Carrick that also runs the multi-day Reggae Rise Up festival series, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Structurally, On High functions as a late-summer anchor event bridging the gap between LNE's massive Reggae Rise Up Florida festivals, which are held each spring at Vinoy Park. Reggae Rise Up Florida 2026 took place in March at Vinoy Park with Sublime and Slightly Stoopid on the bill, and the 2027 edition is already scheduled for March 11 through 14, according to Visit St. Petersburg Clearwater.
The scale of that flagship event underscores why organizers treat St. Petersburg as a reggae stronghold. Reggae Rise Up Florida draws roughly 15,000 attendees per day across its four-day run and contributes an estimated $22 million in economic impact to the St. Petersburg area, per the St. Pete Catalyst. On High, by contrast, is a single-day show, but it plugs into that same regional ecosystem that has made St. Petersburg a fixture on the national reggae touring circuit.
A Venue With Its Own Local History
Jannus Live has long been part of downtown St. Petersburg's music identity, having opened as Jannus Landing in 1984 on one of the city's oldest blocks. Hoodline previously named it a top local venue. The St. Pete Pier, meanwhile, has hosted other large-scale entertainment this year, including Hoodline's earlier coverage of the Red Bull cliff diving event at Spa Beach.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
