Festival attendees at Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival are being put at serious risk due to the festival’s failure to secure a hazardous retention pond.

In March of 2023, Steven Nguyen tragically lost his life after entering this water. Witnesses saw Steven enter the retention pond, and when he didn’t resurface, several groups immediately alerted medical staff, security, and Okeechobee police. They were dismissed and ignored. The next morning, it was not festival staff, but another attendee who discovered Steven’s lifeless body in the water and pulled him out. Instead of taking responsibility, the festival continued to promote the same dangerous water on social media that day and allowed people to swim in it for the remainder of the event.

Why Is This So Dangerous?

The body of water where Steven drowned is not a lake—it is a retention pond. Retention ponds are man-made basins designed to collect stormwater runoff, often with unpredictable currents, steep drop-offs, and hazardous bacteria. They are not legal and not safe for swimming and should never be treated as such. These ponds can also have low oxygen levels and sudden depth changes, INCREASING THE RISK OF DROWNING. 

Despite these dangers, Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival falsely advertises the pond as a swimmable “lake,” and allows attendees to enter the water without lifeguards or proper safety measures.

Why This Must Change

Since Steven’s death, Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival has taken no accountability. The festival continued to allow people to swim in the same retention pond, and after a two-year break, they are now planning for a return—still advertising the same dangerous pond again under the name “Aquachobee.” This behavior is not only deeply disrespectful to Steven Nguyen’s family, friends, and community, it is also blatant negligence.

The festival is held on private property at Sunshine Grove, which makes the landowners equally responsible for ensuring a safe environment. By continuing to allow Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival to promote this hazardous retention pond as a swimming area, Sunshine Grove is failing to protect attendees and is complicit in this ongoing negligence.

We are demanding that Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival organizers, Sunshine Grove, and local authorities immediately prohibit swimming in the retention pond and enforce proper safety measures to prevent future tragedies.

Steven Nguyen should still be here today. No more preventable deaths. Sign this petition to demand action and ensure no more lives are lost.