ORANGE BEACH – The 10th Annual Snowbird Fest had 1100 pre-registered guests in line before the doors opened at 8:45 a.m. along with at least 50 other attendees waiting to register at the door of the Orange Beach Event Center.

The festival is presented by The American Snowbird Network and Monthly Rentals by Owner, both of which Sean Beckham is founder and president of. Beckham said the line in the morning of Feb. 4 formed stretching "all the way towards The Wharf."

This is the first year the Snowbird Fest has returned post-COVID-19. Beckham said this event is put on to bring together local area snowbirds and local businesses so they can "interact and get to know each other" allowing the snowbirds to "become a loyal fan of your brand and your product."

"Because what we found is the senior demographic, they really like to speak to somebody," Beckham said. "They like to make a connection. I know the younger generations; they want to do everything on their phone. That's how they want to meet and date and everything else, but the seniors are not like that. They want to speak to someone."

Beckham said he attended other national snowbird events like one held by the Canadian Snowbird Association (CSA), which "they claim they get 20-30,000 snowbirds." He's also attended local snowbird festivals in "Pensacola and other areas."

"What I didn't like about them was they're a little bit quiet, sterile, you know, sort of awkward," Beckham said. "So, what I wanted to do is not have one where everybody's in a line, but to where there's actually some background going on."

There isn't an "exact figure" for how much it costs to put on Snowbird Fest each year, but Beckham said, "it comes close to breaking even" and sometimes has "a little profit."

"It's a huge branding event for our company and also for the snowbird population," Beckham said, "because all the businesses come out like big time.

In 2020, right before the pandemic hit, we had around 3500 snowbirds and close to 70 vendors."

The festival has free admission as Beckham said the only ticket required is the survey attendees fill out before entering. This survey gathers information "that's not available anywhere else in the world" on snowbird data such as "How long do you stay? Where are you from? How many times have you stayed?"

Results from this year's survey should be compiled and public by the week of Feb. 10. One data point from a previous survey that Beckham mentioned was that 82 percent of the attendees said they stay for two or more months, which Beckham said shocked a lot of project managers who thought a majority of snowbirds only stay for one month.

"We always ask them, 'Did you get what you paid for?' and they're like, 'What do you mean? It was free,'" Beckham said, "and we're like 'Exactly. Did you get your money's worth?"

The event was notably missed by several attendees Beckham said and "snowbirds love it" as he always receives "glowing reviews."

"They love the hospitality, they love the free gifts, you know," Beckham said. "I've heard nothing but glowing reviews."

Beckham said now that the festival has reached its 10th annual showcase, they plan to "expand it to a virtual version" with a similar concept. It is set to have entertainment, giveaways and also educational lectures for snowbirds and monthly guests on what to find in different areas of Baldwin County.