Beyond the Beaches: Inside Panama City’s Local Music Scene

Panama City is known for its beautiful, white sandy beaches where locals and tourists alike can come to blow off steam and relax, whether at a beach bar or restaurant, or somewhere in town and away from the busy beach hotspots. What few know about our local area is that it is also home to a wide range of local musicians who contribute to the city’s entertainment economy.

Along with the musicians themselves, there exists a bustling network of businesses that help support their art, along with a host of local events where audiences can attend live performances and discover emerging local artists. We even have facilities right here in town where aspiring songwriters and creatives can go and get studio time, or use professional equipment for podcasting and the like, to bring their ideas to life. 

Despite its size and activity, much of Panama City’s local music scene remains unfamiliar to many residents and visitors. This story provides an overview of the local music community and how it operates within the city.

In our unique environment, with a high tourist draw, there are many business owners looking to provide entertainment for their customers, and many customers, either local or visiting, to patronize those businesses daily. Because of this, there is no shortage of live music in and around our local neck of the woods on any given day of the week. 

However, information about upcoming performances is often shared through personal social media accounts, niche online groups, and private messaging networks among musicians. This decentralized flow of information illustrates both the accessibility of live music in Panama City and the challenges of navigating the local scene for both professionals and music fans.

While the general public may find themselves out of the loop, musicians here are keenly aware of the advantageous environment we find ourselves in here in Panama City. Townside, Moseys Downtown is a hub of activity for local music and bands, offering open mic nights, frequently scheduled live music nights, and Monday Night Little Fest, too, a low-pressure event that offers emerging artists performance experience with the added benefits of a small bar tab and keeping tips. 

Thistle and Thorne, along with Millies Downtown, are two more great resources for those wishing to play or listen to live music in town, offering open mic nights and performances. Sound Collective is yet another venue that similarly offers music and open mics. Sound Collective also has rental spaces available for just about anything music-related you can think of, in addition to serving as a gathering space for members of the local music community. All of these cater more towards songwriters, solo artists, and original music. 

If you are looking to hear live versions of songs that you already know, beachside, we have several great options to catch cover bands. Many beachside venues regularly feature live music, particularly cover bands. Salty Goat Saloon is one notable example, as well as Sharkey’s and Margaritaville. Buster’s Beer and Bait is another example that also offers some open mics. Overall, there is no shortage of places to check out, townside or beachside, if you play music or are looking to hear some. Panama City even hosts a yearly songwriters festival, right here in town, that draws out some popular local and regional talent. 

Experience within Panama City’s music community offers a close view of how the local scene functions. As a local musician myself, and having performed here locally both as a solo artist and in a band, I have amassed so much knowledge and insight into this community, its people, its places, and the way in which it all works together. This is why I feel personally compelled to help bring attention to the scene and hopefully expose more people to the vibrant community of talented artists that exists right here, in our hometown. This perspective helps to clarify how the scene operates and why it remains an important, though often overlooked, part of Panama City’s cultural life.

Together, the venues, artists, and audiences come together to form a thriving network of entertainers and entertainment options for locals and visitors alike. While our shores and sands remain a large part of our collective identity as a beach town and tourist destination, if you take a moment and listen, you can hear the heartbeat of the city coming from the mouths and instruments of our talented, local musicians, on just about every corner of our home, and on just about any day.