On Thursday afternoon, drivers entering Melrose, Florida, along State Road 26 were greeted with a message: “No to WildFlowers Music Park.”
Around 75 protesters sported matching shirts and signs outside Melrose Heritage Park to oppose a proposed 270-acre event space.
The newly formed nonprofit WildFlowers Music Park Inc. purchased the space on Aug. 2 for $2.6 million, with the intention of creating a grassroots music festival. Jordan Puryear, a New York-based project manager, spearheaded the initiative.
The event space is located in Melrose, an unincorporated community shared between Alachua, Bradford, Clay and Putnam counties, meaning it doesn’t have its own local government and isn’t part of an official city or municipality.
The Alachua County Commission discussed a special area plan for Melrose on Sept. 23, which provides specific conservation guidelines for a development. The two-year process would evaluate the impacts of the venue on the local infrastructure and community, creating a focused plan for the geographical area.
Melrose is designated as a rural cluster, meaning homes are clustered together in open rural areas for conservation. A development within a rural cluster has to ensure compatibility with agricultural areas and “preserve their existing rural character,” according to the Alachua County Comprehensive Plan.
Instead of implementing a special area plan, the county opted for a temporary use permit, which allows for special events on a property for a maximum of three days at a time — meaning it won’t have to conduct the two-year impact evaluation. WildFlowers Music Park is scheduled to host its first festival from March 13 to March 15.
Jacob Sickmeyer, a 26-year-old Melrose resident, said the plan isn’t feasible.
Sickmeyer said music festivals that large are impossible to sustain with the infrastructure in Melrose, and outsiders would bring noise and pollution to such a small town.
“It’ll make the quality of life in Melrose go down,” Sickmeyer said. “They’re saying they could do up to 25,000 people in one venue. The town’s got 5,000 people.”
The unincorporated community, located 17 miles east of Gainesville, doesn’t have its own police station or hospital, and it has just one fire station.
The nearest hospitals are located 20 miles away in Gainesville and Starke. The community’s police presence works through an agreement between Alachua, Bradford, Clay and Putnam counties’ sheriff departments called “Four Corners Cops Without Borders.”
Michelle Baer, a 37-year-old Melrose resident who lives on a property bordering WildFlowers Music Park, said she was concerned about environmental issues, noise and traffic brought on by the venue.
“Some of my neighbors are elderly. If there’s a medical emergency, are they going to get help in time?” Baer said.
Baer said she didn’t think the festival would help the local economy, either. The venue would invite external vendors to events, which would dissuade attendees from buying from local vendors, she said.
“It’s devaluing my property and the area,” Baer said. “These people are not going to contribute to our local economy. … They’re bringing all these vendors.”
Pegi Bonner, a 63-year-old Melrose resident, said the proposal creates several environmental issues, such as runoff.
“They’re saying that they’re trying to conserve the land and return it to a more natural state, but they went in and tore everything out,” Bonner said. “Now they’re putting a road in, and that’s not conservation to me.”
Bonner said she’s skeptical about claims from WildFlowers organizers that there would only be one to two festivals per year at the venue, citing the Alachua County Commission’s temporary use permit, which allows for six.
She added that camping would be an issue for local residents. Although festivals at the venue will be three-day events, visitors can camp for five days, and vendors and organizers can camp for longer.
“It’s just unfortunate that they chose a residential area to put a commercial venue,” Bonner said. “We don’t have the infrastructure. We’re really tight already.”
The County Commission is scheduled to discuss the proposal at its Jan. 27 meeting.
Contact Logan McBride at lmcbride@alligator.org. Follow him on X @logandmcbride.
Logan McBride is a journalism junior and the Fall 2025 K-12 education reporter. In his free time, he enjoys watching TV shows or playing basketball at Southwest Rec. He is also a big football fan and will die for Dak Prescott.
