Machine Gun Kelly (and Megan Fox) Turned Up for Audacy Beach Festival

A swirling breeze wasn't the only steady thing in the air at Fort Lauderdale Beach over the weekend. The sounds — spanning the grungiest to poppiest nooks of the rock spectrum — were on full blast for the two-day Audacy Beach Festival.

The annual fest marked the second in a row bearing the Audacy name. (It was previously known as Riptide Music Festival.) Through the name changes, its lifeblood has been South Florida's 104.3 the Shark and its local DJ personalities, who introduced this year's acts on pre-recorded videos towering over the event's two stages.
The Beach stage served as headliner city, with Yungblud, Jimmy Eat World, and French rockers Phoenix owning slots earlier in the day. The Riptide stage hosted more intimate performances by the Struts and Beach Weather, among others.

To close out day one, a blue-dyed-hair Jack White bounced around the Beach stage as a giant white statue of a ukulele-playing figure — from his Fear of the Dawn album — loomed nearby. White's set was insanely fast paced, perhaps to the point of feeling rushed through everything. Though closing with the sports-anthem favorite "Seven Nation Army" made time stand still beautifully.
Following White, Muse brought a bit of raucous British charm to this already nutty corner of the globe. The guys donned mirror-esque masks as they took the stage, setting the atmosphere for a set that included lead singer Matt Bellamy falling to his knees during guitar solos and an explosion of streamers that quickly blew into nearby palm trees. Highlights in Muse's set included pristine versions of "Starlight," "Compliance," and "Uprising."

On day two, the streamers were still entangled in the palm trees. (Don't worry, they were eventually cleaned out.)

Sunday served as a day of superlatives for the festival. The most fun performance of the weekend was, without a doubt, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, who danced under a giant parachute with the crowd during the opener, "Synesthesia." Later, he also rode an inflatable llama through the crowd.
The most adorable moment unexpectedly came from the Used, when lead singer Bert McCracken brought out his young daughters, Cleopatra and Minerva, to sing songs about food. Later, Cleopatra hung out on stage and watched her dad jam for a few more songs. Eventually, the kids left the stage, and things got profane again with the crowd-fave "Fuck You," a single released in October.

Following a wildly energetic set by the 1975 on the Beach stage — lead singer Matt Healy will shake his hips through anything — Machine Gun Kelly served as the festival's closer. But before he could rip into his hits, yes, Megan Fox was in the house and made quite an intro through the photographer pit to the sound booth and watched while wearing a big puffy pink hat.
Love him or hate him, MGK brought the energy — and quite a few blunts on stage to smoke — as he rocked to a pyro-filled backdrop and massive capital letters spelling "SELLOUT," a call-out to his 2022 album Mainstream Sellout. His biggest hits got the most love from the crowd — whom he called "you sexy, sweaty fucks” at one point — including "I Think I'm Okay" and the final song, "My Ex's Best Friend."

At the end of the set, Fox joined him for a stroll past the crowd before being ushered backstage. And then, the crowd was ultimately ushered off the beach, too. With so many excellent and dynamic vibes, hopefully, everyone will be hitting the beach again next year for Audacy Beach Festival.