2023 by Scott Sugiuchi
BUMBLEFEST 2023
Now in its seventh year, Bumblefest—the annual festival presented by the industrious South Florida music and art zine PureHoney—offers another curated lineup of electronic and indie rock organized by some of the scene’s most discerning tastemakers. Los Angeles-based headliners Death Valley Girls, which hired Iggy Pop to star in one of its recent videos, indeed channel some of the Stooges’ protean energy, while also evoking Sleater-Kinney and a timeless back-to-the-garage ethos, with more than a touch of the cosmic in their lyrics and songwriting. Other top acts include fellow L.A. artist Al Lover, an electronic musician with an omnivorous approach to scavenging, who describes his sound as “Neu!-Age Spiritualized Repetition”; the shimmering acoustic-guitar driven bedroom pop of Canada’s Dusted; the throwback hardcore sludge of New York’s Gnarcissists; SoCal singer-songwriter Gal Musette, who marries classic chanson singing to an indie-folk aesthetic; and some 37 more bands spread across two nights of revelry across five stages in West Palm Beach’s hippest street. Visit bumblefest.com for the complete schedule. – Boca Magazine
Death Valley Girls Headline Bumblefest With Garage, Girl-Group Melodies
Death Valley Girls’ latest album, Islands in the Sky, has a spooky, otherworldly feel. The garage-rock, girl-group influence the Los Angeles band showed off on previous albums is still evident, but it almost sounded as if, for this batch of songs, the quartet was aiming for the perfect Halloween record. Singer-songwriter Bonnie Bloomgarden says that was very much intentional. – Miami New Times
Popular music festival Bumblefest will rock five stages in downtown West Palm Beach
Bumblefest is back, better than ever, and happening on Friday, Sept. 1 and Saturday, Sept. 2 in downtown West Palm Beach. Yes, 2022 was amazing; but it’s time to embrace the now, or at least the soon, when over three dozen bands take to five stages at four venues in the 500 block of Clematis Street and systematically begin blowing minds with juicy, sonic goodness. – Palm Beach Post
INDIE MUSIC BUZZ: Bands to converge on the 500 block of Clematis Street for Bumblefest
South Florida’s original live music scene has been in various states of flux for the past decade, but COVID-19 put it on the back burner alongside many internet plagued print publications. For the past few years, many original bands have performed live for reduced fees or perhaps even only a virtual tip jar, or more likely been replaced by cheaper karaoke, deejays, trivia, open mics, open jam nights and solo or duo acts playing with programmed backing tracks. Yet area music promoter and magazine publisher Steev Rullman has managed to flip the script while sporting both of those challenging titles. His online and print publication, PureHoney magazine, is distributed between Stuart and Miami, and celebrated its 12th anniversary in August. And since 2016, Rullman has managed to attract indie bands and artists from throughout North America to come to South Florida to perform at PureHoney’s annual anniversary celebration, Bumblefest. – Florida Weekly
Bumblefest 2023 Recap – Atlantic Current
Bumblefest Returns to West Palm on Labor Day Weekend – The Jitney
Death Valley Girls to play Bumblefest 2023 – PureHoney Magazine
Al Lover to play Bumblefest 2023 – PureHoney Magazine
Dusted to play Bumblefest 2023 – PureHoney Magazine
Gnarcissists to play Bumblefest 2023 – PureHoney Magazine
Gal Musette to play Bumblefest 2023 – PureHoney Magazine
CHEW to play Bumblefest 2023 – PureHoney Magazine
Kairos Creature Club to play Bumblefest 2023 – PureHoney Magazine
2022 by Vernon James “Bad Love”
BUMBLEFEST 2022
Bumblefest Returns to Downtown West Palm Beach with Cumgirl8 and Spaceface – New Times
Bumblefest buzzes back to downtown WPB – Florida Weekly
Bumblefest 2022 live music festival, featuring dozens of bands, rocks West Palm Beach – Palm Beach Post
Bumblefest celebrates 6th Edition – Atlantic Current
Original headliner Stargazer Lilies back for 6th Bumblefest – Palms West Journal
Your Week Ahead – BocaMag
Spaceface among Bumblefest psych-rock bands playing Tampa this weekend – Creative Loafing Tampa
Bumblefest 2022 Press Release – Myth Maker PR
Spaceface to play Bumblefest 2022 – PureHoney Magazine
The Stargazer Lilies to play Bumblefest 2022 – PureHoney Magazine
cumgirl8 to play Bumblefest 2022 – PureHoney Magazine
Immaterial Possession to play Bumblefest 2022 – PureHoney Magazine
Gal Musette to play Bumblefest 2022 – PureHoney Magazine
Leah Wellbaum (Slothrust) to play Bumblefest 2022 – PureHoney Magazine
Postface to play Bumblefest 2022 – PureHoney Magazine
Vernon James, Bad Love Design, from Detroit designs Bumblefest 2022 Poster – PureHoney Magazine
2021 by James H. Eddy
BUMBLEFEST 2021
Ten Sweet Years of PureHoney — How an indie-music junkie built a ‘rad megaphone’ for the underground – ByJoeCapozzi.com
Bumblefest marks a milestone by rocking the 500 block of Clematis Street with indie music – Florida Weekly
PureHoney celebrates ten years with a buzzy lineup at Bumblefest – WPB Magazine
Bumblefest To Bring Surfer Blood, Unwed Sailor and More to West Palm Beach This Friday – BocaMag
Bumblefest music gathering returns after COVID hiatus – Palm Beach Arts Paper
Bumblefest Celebrates Ten Years of PureHoney Magazine – The Jitney
Interview with Steev Rullman (PureHoney, Bumblefest, WormHole, Resident Noize) – Florida Sound Archive
Surfer Blood plays Bumblefest 2021 – PureHoney Magazine
Unwed Sailor plays Bumblefest 2021 – PureHoney Magazine
Spirit & the Cosmic Heart plays Bumblefest 2021 – PureHoney Magazine
Room Thirteen plays Bumblefest 2021 – PureHoney Magazine
James H. Eddy, an incredible artist from San Francisco designs Bumblefest 2021 Poster – PureHoney Magazine
2019 by Becca Fuhrman
BUMBLEFEST 2019
Bumblefest Opening Night (Video by Wilkine Brutus) – Palm Beach Post
BUMBLEFEST 2019: Seven Super Standouts – New Times
DOWNTOWN BUZZ: Bumblefest brings touring bands and local acts for two nights of music on Clematis Street – Florida Weekly
Bumblefest: This music festival is getting bigger, better in West Palm Beach – Palm Beach Post
Bumblefest Preview – The Atlantic Current
Bumblefest founder talks keeping music fest affordable while expanding – IndieEthos.com
Interview with founder of Bumblefest, Steven Rullman – Tropicult.com
PureHoney Mag presents the 8th Annual Bumblefest – Soundbite
Bumblefest Week: Day 2 In Motion – Readable Noise
Bumblefest Week: Day 1 Spirit and the Cosmic Heart – Readable Noise
Bumblefest 2019: Your Mini Guide to the South Florida Microfest – Readable Noise
Interview with Matt Adams of The Blank Tapes (LA) – PureHoney Magazine
Interview with Samira Winter of Winter (LA) – PureHoney Magazine
Interview with Warner Hiatt of Worn-Tin (Santa Monica) – PureHoney Magazine
Interview with The Fantastic Plastics (NYC) – PureHoney Magazine
Interview with Big Bliss (Brooklyn) – PureHoney Magazine
BUMBLEFEST STRIKES BACK! – PureHoney Magazine
Bumblefest Preview – Honey Talks with Brady Newbill
2018 by Kyle Hess
BUMBLEFEST 2018
BUMBLEFEST HITS CLEMATIS STREET, PHOTOS – SouthFlorida.com
Bumblefest Returns to West Palm Beach With Lumerians and Scott Yoder – New Times BPB
Scott Yoder Is a New-School Crooner – New Times Miami
BumbleFest celebrates 7 years of PureHoney Magazine with 34 bands – Independent Ethos
PureHoney Magazine presents BumbleFest on Clematis Street – Weekend Broward Palm Beach
Bumblefest Preview – Honey Talks with Brady Newbill
BUMBLEFEST 2018 – PureHoney Magazine
Design: Serena Dominguez
Live music club Voltaire opens in downtown West Palm Beach
To manage Voltaire, Mayo brought in Rullman, a longtime leader in the South Florida music scene and editor/publisher of PureHoney magazine. Rullman’s roots in the scene, as well as his association with Mayo, go all the way back to the early 1990s. Rullman, a former musician, has promoted and booked concerts for Mayo’s various venues for decades. His latest venture is the annual Bumblefest (set for Sept. 2 in the 500 block of Clematis).
Rullman operated a performance and event venue called The Wormhole from 1994 to 1996 in the same building as the original Lost Weekend on Olive Avenue. The combination concert space, thrift shop and music/book store was on the ground floor while Lost Weekend was upstairs. Ironically, that’s now reversed with Rullman running Voltaire one floor above Lost Weekend. | READ MORE at PalmBeachPost.com
2017 by Andrew McGranahan
Bumblefest 2017: All the bands playing the West Palm Beach block party
When the Bumblefest 2017 music festival returns to downtown West Palm Beach on Sept. 2, 22 indie bands from Palm Beach County and beyond will perform along Clematis Street. Everything about the bash, which kicks off at 6 p.m., came together through concert promoter Steev Rullman, publisher of a 6-year-old, fold-out culture magazine, PureHoney, that shares the same mission as his festival: celebrating South Florida’s music scene. An influential Palm Beach County scenester who books live music at Lake Worth’s Propaganda and West Palm Beach’s Respectable Street, Rullman started Bumblefest last year to mark PureHoney’s fifth anniversary. Bumblefest will be headlined by Austin psych-rock quintet Holy Wave, and will sprawl across four stages at Subculture Coffee, Lost Weekend, Respectable Street and Voltaire. | READ MORE at Sun Sentinel/SouthFlorida.com
BUZZ!
OMNIPRESENT AREA music promoter and PureHoney magazine publisher Steev Rullman often wears both of those entertainment related hats simultaneously, and never more so than during the annual festival thrown for his publication’s anniversary.
An all-night musical block party, Bumblefest 2017 is subtitled “The Return Trip,” since it’s the second annual such event taking over the 500 block of Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach — even though it celebrates PureHoney’s sixth anniversary. The Sept. 2 festival features more than 20 different bookings by Mr. Rullman on four different stages, and includes national and regional headliners as well as some of the best of South Florida’s local acts. “Bumblefest in name actually just began… | READ MORE at Florida Weekly
MUSIC MASTER
Bands and nightclubs come and go in entertainment. But music promoter Steev Rullman has outlasted most venues and acts in South Florida over the past quarter-century, while profoundly shaping the region’s entertainment scene. Yet to call the tireless, omnipresent Boynton Beach native a constant would be an injustice to his amoebic musical activities. | READ MORE at Florida Weekly
2016 by Steven Rullman
Influential Music Promoter Launches Festival
If you’ve attended concerts in South Florida with any degree of regularity over the past 20 years, you’ve probably breathed the same oxygen as Steve Rullman more than once. An influential musician-turned-promoter with a Palm Beach County focus, Rullman has booked acts at Respectable Street in West Palm for nearly 10 years, helped to open and brand Lake Worth’s Propaganda, and promoted the local music scene during editorial stints at Closer magazine and the Palm Beach Post.| READ MORE at Boca Mag
PureHoney magazine turns 5, celebrates with downtown West Palm music fest
Steev Rullman has never been keen on following trends. Going against the grain of most mainstream media, the longtime guiding light of the local indie music scene ditched his long-running website five years ago and launched a throwback to another era: A printed magazine. | READ MORE at Palm Beach Post
Bumblefest has the bands you need to know
The Bumblefest block party in downtown West Palm Beach on Saturday will celebrate the anniversary of Steev Rullman’s indomitable monthly culture magazine PureHoney, printed on paper, bound into 10,000 or so copies and hand-delivered to more than 300 bars, restaurants and shops, where it is eagerly consumed by Internet-raised masses. Rullman has been confounding the digital-media orthodoxy in this way for five years. | READ MORE at Sun Sentinel/SouthFlorida.com
PureHoney’s publisher talks Bumblefest Music Festival and the wonders and challenges of print ‘zines
This weekend, PureHoney, our favorite South Florida-based, independent, grassroots entertainment ‘zine, will celebrate its fifth anniversary with an expansion of its usual anniversary party into a full-fledged music festival: Bumblefest. PureHoney publisher… | READ MORE at Independent Ethos
GROOVES: PureHoney
Fanzine are a fun place to find out what’s on the audio menu, and PureHoney Magazine is one of the best. It’s free online and in print at locations from West Palm Beach to Miami (purehoneymagazine.com). Each edition opens up to the size of a big Sunday paper with gorgeous full-color graphics | READ MORE at Florida Weekly
Stargazer Lilies Help PureHoney Celebrate at Bumblefest
Guitarist John Ceparano was holding some flowers one day when a stranger approached, glanced at the blooms in his hands, and asked if they were stargazer lilies. “We thought that was such a cool name for a band,” Ceparano remembers. “It informed our sound. We thought, What would a band called the Stargazer Lilies sound like?” | READ MORE at New Times
PureHoney Announces Bumblefest 2016 Lineup
When human beings turn five, they get a birthday party with a piñata, clown, and cake with the cartoon character du jour on it. When South Florida’s favorite free monthly music zine PureHoney turns five, it gets rock ‘n’ roll — and lots of it. Yesterday, PureHoney listed… | READ MORE at New Times
2015 by Christopher Ian Macfarlane
PUREHONEY FOUR-YEAR ANNIVERSARY JAM
He’s booked countless shows, in pretty much every South Florida music venue, current and defunct. He’s hosted a radio show, promoted bands, co-owned a record shop, and most recently, established a label, Camp Thunderbee Records. He also started a local music website — The Honeycomb, then PureHoneyMagazine.com — and manages to regularly put out a fold-out printed zine with collectible posters. Damn. Steev Rullman has done a lot in two decades. But the good man took a break from the hustle to chat just before PureHoney’s upcoming fourth anniversary jam at Respectable Street: | READ MORE at New Times
PUREHONEY’S FOURTH ANNIVERSARY PARTY AT RESPECTABLE STREET
Not-so-newsworthy newsflash: Print newspapers and magazines are in trouble. That’s a fact evidenced in the closing of so many businesses around the country, seemingly every other day. So who in their right mind would embark on such an endeavor in this risky climate? Steev Rullman would, the madman behind PureHoney Magazine and a South Florida music scene lifer. Amazingly, PureHoney, a local rag born from the mind of a local institution, celebrated its four-year anniversary this past weekend at Respectable Street. It’s a venue Rullman is well acquainted with, having regularly booked bands there for eight years. The one-night-only mini rock and roll festival consisted of… | READ MORE at New Times | New Times Slideshow
PureHoney Four-Year Jam
A nostalgic throwback to the age of music zines, Steve Rullman’s PureHoney magazine and website work tirelessly to spread the word about great music in South Florida, whether it’s a homegrown Miami band or a rare appearance from a legendary post-punk act (Full disclosure: I’m one of PureHoney’s contributors). Not only has the zine survived four years in a perpetually down market for print publications; it’s also thriving enough to support an anniversary celebration at local treasure Respectable Street. The show will be headlined by AJ Davila y Terror Amor, an acclaimed Puerto Rican garage-punk phenomenon that layers Spanish vocals over noise-pop squalls of sound. The lineup also includes the extraterrestrial instrumental abstractions of Cog Nomen, the Wilco-esque singer-songwriter confessionals of John Ralston, the indie dream-pop of Sweet Bronco, the No Wave-style pop dissonance of Pocket of Lollipops, and more. | READ MORE at Boca Magazine
2014 by Nathaniel Deas
PureHoney‘s Third Anniversary Reminds Us to “Bee Authentic”
PureHoney isn’t some precious thing you pick up to simply admire — though it always has a rad poster hidden in its belly — it’s also very functional. Considering it’s deliciously thriving in the age of the internet, we advise you take Rullman’s sage words to heart. | READ MORE at New Times
People Who Made the Music Scene Great in 2014
Some people make fanzines about it. Some people make a living writing about it. Rullman’s managed to marry these two expressions of adoration and create an item that is both functional and collectible. His PureHoney Magazine is a monthly printed labor of love that stands strong in the face of extreme digital adversity. We are continually impressed by Rullman’s unabashed defiance toward “print’s death” and his ongoing output of a lovingly crafted product that is also a tangible artifact representing that month in music. Each features a foldout poster designed by a local artist and articles about bands coming to town and those who live here. It does an incredible job linking the tri-county area’s diverse underground music scenes. | READ MORE at New Times
Roadkill Ghost Choir Headlines PureHoneyMagazine’s Three Year Anniversary
This weekend, our very own “fold-out party Bible,” PureHoney magazine, celebrates its third year of existence. The noble endeavor of creating an indie print publication in this digital world is undertaken by Steve Rullman. Besides going strong, PureHoney is hosting a proper shindig at Respectable Street to celebrate its anniversary, featuring stellar local bands like Plastic Pink, Sweet Bronco, and Central Florida’s indie folk troupe Roadkill Ghost Choir. | READ MORE at New Times
INK MAGAZINE: PureHoney Magazine
While old salts are winning the Internet, a bunch of crazy South Florida kids have their dreams tied to a magazine printed on paper. Steve Rullman’s PureHoney will celebrate three admirable years of sharing the skinny on the local indie music scene with an anniversary party on Friday… As much as this night is about music, it’s also an appreciation of the unique virtues of print: the page design, the typography, the well-turned caption, the commitment of permanently tattooing your name and your work onto a piece of paper and putting that paper out on the street for all to see. Admission to Friday night’s event is, fittingly, free. But there should be a tip jar. | READ MORE at SouthFlorida.com
The light still won’t go out: PureHoney Magazine’s 3 year party at Respectable Street
Steev Rullman has been a part of the ‘South Florida Music Scene’ for a ridiculously long time by any sceneological measure. He built website TheHoneyComb.com (now www.purehoneymagazine.com) in 1998, the same year that Refused released the seminal album “The Shape of Punk To Come” and , coincidentally , in the same year that I was 9. He is now publisher of an extremely slick-looking zine which you can find at Howley’s, Blue Front, Harold’s and other SoFla favorites. | READ MORE at Boca Raton Tribune
PureHoney Three Year Anniversary Party
Steadily growing in recognition over its past three years of existence, promoter Steven Rullman’s PureHoney Magazine has become our region’s most exhaustive and extensive chronicler of the music scene, covering every facet from tiny clubs to arena shows. | READ MORE at Boca Magazine
Sweet! PureHoney celebrates its third anniversary as SoFla’s musical record
Several years ago I ran into a former Palm Beach Post colleague on Lake Avenue in downtown Lake Worth who promoted a lot of indie shows around town. He told me he was starting his own magazine, and that he’d get me a copy of it. That magazine. PureHoney, has become the go-to for what’s happening on the music scene around South Florida, and it’s the brainchild of that former coworker, Steev Rullman. It’s nice to see someone make a success based on their passion, and supporting the local scene and helping make sure that there’s a scene for musicians to play in is Steev’s. | READ MORE at Palm Beach Post
9 South Florida Arts and Culture Blogs You Need to Read Right Now
“Steev Rullman has promoted shows in the greater South Florida area, particularly in Broward and Palm Beach counties, for years. Also for years, this site was the most authoritative place to check for upcoming indie rock, punk, and related shows in those counties. In recent years, besides launching a monthly print zine under the same brand, Rullman’s expanded his site into a proper blog. This is a great place to go for scads of exclusive downloads from the best local bands.” | READ MORE at WLRN
PureHoney Magazine 2 Year Anniversary
PureHoney Magazine is an avid local music supporter and along with each issue also publishes a playlist via a SoundCloud playlist and offers free songs for download to help bands reach out and to please fans on a regular basis. | READ MORE at Tropicult
The King Bee
“Rullman has served as one of the county’s chief tastemakers. It is not an exaggeration to say that the music scene in Palm Beach County would not be the same, and far worse, without him… There’s not a lot of money in it, and yet he’s kept at it for his entire adult life. The love of the strange, and of turning other people on to it, has largely been the man’s reward.” | READ MORE at Salty Eggs
TheHoneyComb.com Launching Print Publication Purehoney
Consummate Palm Beach County music champion Steve Rullman is taking a stab at the publishing business with a new print publication called Purehoney. | READ MORE at New Times
Meet the Publisher: PureHoney Magazine
“Musician, promoter, artist, venue manager, festival producer, consultant, band manager, label owner, writer, radio show host, record shop owner and now newspaper publisher – purely and simply, few have done more for the South Florida Music Community in the past two decades than Steev Rullman. He’s dabbled in a bit of everything and his list of accomplishments is longer than a career criminal’s rap sheet.” ~ Adam Matza | READ MORE
