Saturday, September 21, 2019 marks the date of a truly spectacular event that took place at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. As part of the Sing Out Loud Festival, 2019 GRAMMY award-winning Country music star Kacey Musgraves headlined the sold-out Sing Out Loud Festival Benefit Concert, which raised $225,392.50 for two local charities – HorsePlay Therapy Center and the Green Hands Initiative for St. Johns County Public Schools.
The 4th Annual Sing Out Loud Festival is Florida’s largest free music festival and benefit concert, held every September in St. Augustine, Florida. Featuring 334 national, regional and local singers, musicians, comedians and poets, all performances are free and open to the public with the exception of the September 21 benefit concert. Kacey Musgraves, this year’s benefit headliner, handpicked two beneficiaries from a list of local charities. Within 60 minutes of going on sale on March 15, tickets to the benefit concert sold out, resulting in over $225,000.00 raised for HorsePlay Therapy Center and the Green Hands Initiative for St. Johns County Public Schools. Musgraves presented donation checks of $112,696.25 to each organization prior to her taking the stage at the Amphitheatre this past Saturday.
HorsePlay Therapy Center is a not for profit pediatric therapy organization located in the heart of St. Augustine that specializes in serving children with special needs. HorsePlay Therapy is one of the few organizations in the southeast dedicated to providing physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy for children on horseback. The funds raised from the concert will provide scholarships and funding to build a covered arena so HorsePlay can provide therapy year-round.
The Green Hands Initiative is committed reducing unnecessary waste and minimizing adverse impacts on cherished resources, while supporting and encouraging education and sustainability within the community. Proceeds raised for the Green Hands Initiative will go towards the purchase of filtered water refill stations for St. Johns County Public Schools. By providing filtered water refill stations and encouraging the use of reusable water bottles, students will learn about environmental responsibility and waste reduction.
About the Sing Out Loud Festival
The Sing Out Loud Festival is Florida’s largest free music festival and benefit concert held every September in the nation’s oldest city – St. Augustine, Florida. The festival features hundreds performers ranging in genres from indie rock, Americana, blues, hip-hop and electronica to spoken word, bluegrass, punk rock, jazz and comedy.
The Festival is presented by the St. Augustine Distillery, with support from Champion Brands, AVL Productions, Intuition Ale Works, Communion Presents and a myriad of additional community partners. The St. Johns County Cultural Events Division (which owns and operates the St. Augustine Amphitheatre and Ponte Vedra Concert Hall) and the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council produce the annual Festival. Since its inception in 2016, the festival has welcomed an estimated 100,000 music fans, featured over 900 performing artists at a dozen local venues and raised over $325,000 for charitable organizations such as the HorsePlay Therapy Center, Betty Griffin House of St. Johns County, United Way and the OneOrlando Fund.