Hundreds of snorkellers and divers will converge on the Florida Lower Keys this coming Saturday 12th July for the 30th Annual Underwater Music Festival. The submerged songfest, held at Looe Key Reef, combines music, the arts, and reef preservation awareness into a surreal immersion experience. Here are some of the offerings that make this undersea jam session one of the most delightfully offbeat marine events around.

A different kind of Surround Sound: The festival’s subaqueous music broadcast is made possible by underwater speakers suspended from boats, and the ocean-themed soundtrack includes such tunes as the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” Jimmy Buffett’s “Fins,” and theme’s from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Hearing the playlist through the water is a peculiar experience. “Sound underwater travels five times faster than it does in the air,” says festival founder Bill Becker. “It just sort of surrounds you. You can hear it not only through your ears; you can feel it through your jaw and your head.”

Ethereal performances: Snorkel and scuba aficionados can watch costumed divers perform to the music. This year’s festival theme, “Diving with the Stars,” is sure to be an otherworldly spectacle. “We’re expecting our divers to be dressed in beautiful flowing garments and cavorting around the ocean floor—not touching the reef, of course,” says Susan Miller, Executive Director of the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce.

In years past, underwater performers have ranged from diving Elvis Presley look-a-likes to a “Submerged Symphony” playing mock instruments. A recent election year performance featured divers clad as flag-waving U.S. presidents followed by a trail of Secret Service agents garbed in hats, jackets, and sunglasses.

Signature artwork: Each year, local artist August Powers crafts a new faux musical instrument for costumed divers to “play” underwater, thus enhancing the show’s visual elements. His past sea-inspired creations have included a “clambourine,” a “sax-eel-phone,” and a “Great White Harp.” This year marks the debut of his latest creation, “Belushi Blue,” a guitar-shaped bluefish wearing a hat and shades like the Blues Brothers.

Reef madness: Amidst all of the fun and frolicking, the underwater broadcast is interspersed with serious messages to festival goers about the importance of sustaining the reef by not touching the coral, or littering, and using mooring buoys instead of anchors. “We’re just trying to get people to be more conscious of their impacts and be careful about them,” says Becker.

The Underwater Music Festival will be simulcast live on US1 Radio 104.1 FM.

For more information on the festival, click here.

Source: parade.condenast.com