Snorkelers playing saxophones underwater, mermaids strumming instruments, and everyone jams out to Yellow Submarine and Jimmy Buffett hits through underwater speakers – this might sound like a fever dream but it is real and happening every year in Florida. The Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival is where the annual subaquatic sound experience has been bringing divers and ocean lovers together since 1985 when local radio station news director Bill Becker founded the event with a goal of raising awareness for coral reef preservation. The festival takes place at Looe Key Reef which is part of the only living coral barrier reef in North America, and attendees get to experience something truly magical while learning about responsible diving and ways to protect these precious underwater ecosystems that desperately need our help.
Local musician divers dress up as mermaids and play custom made instruments created by a local artist that produce ethereal sounds you cannot hear anywhere else on Earth, while participants tune into a specially curated radio playlist that gets streamed through underwater speakers so everyone can groove together beneath the waves. Steve Miller who serves as executive director of the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce explained that they have the largest living coral reef in the Northern Hemisphere and want to bring attention to it along with some of the stresses it faces while pointing out that it is there and needs our care. The festival also includes free tours of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Coral Reef Research Center where visitors can see firsthand the incredible work being done to protect and rebuild the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem, proving that Becker’s original vision of balancing reef protection with public enjoyment is working because as he wisely noted the more people realize what is down there and enjoy it the more likely they are to protect it for future generations.
Source: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/florida-lower-keys-underwater-music-festival
