Cayamo is a singer-songwriter festival held aboard a cruise ship. It is one of several music cruises produced by Sixthman, an independent subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line.
We have been on the 2013 and 2017-2022 cruises (there was no cruise in 2021), seven-day tours out of Miami, Tampa and New Orleans. About 40 Americana acts are onboard each time, such as Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, Jason Isbell, Shawn Mullins, Paul Thorn, Tommy Emmanuel, Larry Campbell and Teresa Willams and others. The first Cayamo cruise was in 2008.
As with other music festivals, some acts come back to Cayamo year after year and there are new surprises each year. In recent years, Cayamo has held a series of votes to add three relatively unknown "soundcheck" artists to the lineup and sometimes has a "stowaway" artist who is not named until the cruise begins. Sixthman has said in its "Ask Sixthman" sessions that they require each act to play at least three shows and emphasize a desire for artists to collaborate, even offering to make introductions and requests on behalf of artists.
Sixthman also puts on the Rock Boat, Outlaw Country cruise, the KISS Kruise, and several others.
Below, Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton (seated) joins the Punch Brothers, the 2022 cruise headliners, for a Pool Deck show.
Below, Cayamo 2013 headliner Lyle Lovett, center, hosts a songwriters' showcase with, from left, Sean and Sara Watkins, Keith Sewell, Keb' Mo', Lily Hiatt, Justin Townes Earle, Shawn Colvin, Luke Bulla and Maple Burns.
Cayamo and its sister cruises combine the cruise lifestyle of round-the-clock food and drinks, constant travel between the ship's decks, casino games and duty-free sales, with multiple concerts day and night.
Cruise itineraries differ. The 2013 cruise out of Miami went to San Juan, Antigua and Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The 2017 cruise out of Tampa went to Cozumel, Mexico, and Roatan, Honduras. The 2018 Cayamo cruise out of New Orleans visited Cozumel and NCL's Harvest Caye resort off of Belize (see below).
Below, the Norweigan Pearl is seen docked at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
This is what we awoke to outside our cabin after the Pearl pulled into Tortola overnight:
Cayamo's top acts present shows in the Stardust Theater, below and above with Lyle Lovett and friends, which accommodates 1,042 people. We have sat in several spots for various shows, including in the balcony, and never had a bad seat. On the other hand, there has been a few broken seats and others have obscured views, and many complain that seats in the Stardust are uncomfortable.
Cayamo continues to work on the best way to ensure cruisers get to see their favorite acts. Since 2017, cruisers have been asked to prioritize their choices among Stardust shows, and reserved seats in the front-center rows of the theater are assigned in order according to how many cruises you had been on and your booking date. We regularly get our top priorities and have had seats as close as the fourth row. On the other hand, we walked into reserved-seat shows and sat on the aisle and as close to the front as we wanted in side sections.
Below, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams are joined by Tommy Emmanuel (right) for a Stardust Theater show in 2022.
For bigger rock acts on some Sixthman cruises, several rows of seats in front of the Stardust stage are removed for standing/dancing room.
The other large stage is on the Pool Deck, where one of two pools is covered. The audience area includes "the lawn" directly in front of the stage for standing, plus sections of arranged seating, tables and chairs in the shade to the side, and chaise lounges and chairs on the upper deck and, higher still, the sun deck. In addition to the remaining pool and hot tubs, there are bars at each end and both sides of the Pool Deck, and the buffet almost immediately indoors on the same deck. All in all, a great place to hang out.
Below, Brandi Carlile plays the 2017 sail-away show at the port in Tampa on the Pool Deck.
Keb' Mo' presents a blues show for the pool deck in 2019.
The Spinnaker Lounge, below, is a nightclub on a forward, upper deck. This room really rocks - with the ship and with the music. It has upholstered chairs and sofas ringing the main seating area, and hard-back chairs toward the rear.
Below, Sarah Potenza plays a 2017 Spinnaker show.
The Spinnaker's full bar and comfortable seating make it an easy room to stay put in for an evening, if you can snag a nice seat. On the other hand, the view of the small stage can be poor from some vantage points once it gets crowded.
Of course, you can get close to the stage in the Spinnaker. Here's Madison Cunningham in 2022.
At the center of the Pearl, the Atrium Stage is set up in what is essentially the ship's lobby. In addition to its being in a high-traffic area, the stage is adjacent to a bar and a coffee shop, the seating area for a restaurant is open above, and the ship's information desks and shops line the rear and two sides of the room. It's not always a great place for quiet singer-songwriter moments, but it can be an exciting venue for louder shows.
A short video clip from a Shovels and Rope show in 2013 demonstrates how crowded the Atrium can get. Shovels and Rope returned to Cayamo in 2023.
Some smaller stage locations change from cruise to cruise as the Sixthman crew tries to decide what works best. The Great Outdoors, the bar and dining area at the stern of the ship, below with Moses Atwood, has been used some years but not others and is a favorite of ours.
In rain or windy weather, shows are moved inside, as shown on the monitor below with 2018 schedule updates in red.
The fact that Cayamo is a cruise is either a plus or a drawback. For our first cruise, it took the two of us a few days to adjust to the rhythm of the lifestyle, including being onboard a ship, finding our way around and dealing with crowded buffets. In some sense, that's not much different from any other festival, except that you cannot leave.
On the other hand, all the amenities of the ship are at hand, the staff is unfailingly friendly and the shows are the kind you hope to see at a music festival. On the 2013 cruise, an all-star tribute to Levon Helm was organized by Levon's virtuoso sideman Larry Campbell. The 2017 cruise featured several collaborations, including a tribute to Guy Clark. The 2018 cruise featured a Tom Petty tribute and a tribute to headliner John Prine as the Pool Deck sail-away show as we left New Orleans. Prine, who died from COVID in 2020, was memorialized with multiple shows in 2022.
Below, Richard Thompson and Brandi Carlile sing John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery" in 2018.
And, also like at other festivals, many fans and well as artists return to Cayamo and "the boat" year after year. In fact, the vast majority of folks on the cruise had been on at least one other voyage, and several have been on all of them. There are also many chances to meet the musicians. We don't go out of our way to do so but, in 2017 for example, we shared an elevator with Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars one evening, and sat at a table above the pool deck for a while one afternoon chatting with Ralph Friedrichsen, who plays bass for the Paul Thorn Band, and Ralph's wife, Annie.
Below, from 2013, Richard Thompson and his Electric Trio are joined by Buddy Miller and, below that, Jim Lauderdale listens as Larry Campbell, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller play during Buddy and Jim's SiriusXM radio show, which they record in the Stardust Theater when they are onboard.
In 2017, below, Sarah Buxton of Skyline Motel, with the help of bandmate Kate York, hands beer to the first fans who stepped forward to dance during the band's Pool Deck show.
The Wainwright Family was aboard Cayamo 2017, presenting family and individual shows. Below, Rufus Wainwright. This was a priority reserved-seating show, as discussed above. We sat in open seating to the side on Row 2.
Harvest Caye is a 75-acre island off of Belize that NCL has developed as a cruise stop. It has a seven-acre beach; several shops, bars and restaurants; a large swimming pool with a swim-up bar; a zip line; an aviary and other wildlife exhibits; and other attractions. It also has a ferry to the mainland and connections to shore excursions.
When Cayamo visits Harvest Caye, it presents shows on the center lawn, such as this 2018 show on a rainy day by Steve Poltz (under the blue tent).
Return to Carolina Music Festivals' home page.