Tenth Anniversary of Island Hopper Songwriter Fest Highlighted by Steele and McCreery Performances

BMI, in partnership with the Lee County, Florida Visitor and Convention Bureau and iHeart Media, brought the 10th annual Island Hopper Songwriter Fest to the Fort Myers islands, beaches and neighborhoods despite the significant impact hurricane Helene had on the area. The Festival kicked off with beautiful conditions on Captiva Island and in Cape Coral where large crowds came out to see BMI songwriters perform in multiple rounds in a variety of venues. And later in the week, despite a lot of rainfall and terrible flooding, the local venues, hotels, and government workers did a remarkable job cleaning up the water, sand, and debris so that that the festival could continue in downtown Fort Myers and on Fort Myers Beach.

Legendary BMI songwriter Jeffrey Steele pulled the community together with a performance with the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra that brought his iconic catalogue of music to life in a way most of his fans had never experienced before. With the help of GCSO Maestro Andrew Kurtz and his talented orchestra, Steele's songs brought joy and inspiration to the large, enthusiastic audience that were dealing with the many challenges that come with tropical storms and hurricanes. Jeffrey is a six-time Grammy nominee and has been recognized by BMI for the 65 million radio performances of the hits he has penned for the likes of Keith Urban, Eric Church, Zac Brown Band, Jimmy Buffet, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Cher, and many others.

The Festival continued the next two days with a variety of songwriter performances, culminating with a pool party at the long time BMI-licensee Pink Shell Beach Resort in Fort Myers Beach that featured a high energy performance from BMI songwriter and Triple Tigers recording artist Scotty McCreery who is riding high right now with six consecutive Gold or Platinum-certified singles, five back -to-back No, 1s and over four million albums sold. The concert opened with a performance by Austin, Texas artist and BMI songwriter Katrina Cain, who was on Season 15 of NBC's The Voice.