GULF SHORES — Parrotheads from all over gathered in Gulf Shores for the 34th annual Meeting of the Minds this past week, carrying on the legacy of the late Jimmy Buffett.

The event is hosted by Parrotheads in Paradise Inc. (PHiP), the official Jimmy Buffett fan club, with a network of more than 175 clubs and more than 20,000 Buffett fans across America. The organization supports community and environmental causes through Buffett’s music and lifestyle. The organization and its local chapters have raised more than $64 million for causes tied to Buffett’s charitable foundations and community groups in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and beyond.

Bill Brehm, president of PHiP, said multiple charities are supported throughout the event, including those focused on breast cancer awareness and Alzheimer’s disease. One of the biggest charities they give back to is Singing for Change, a charity started by Buffett to support and fund small nonprofit organizations that inspire personal growth and create positive change within their communities.

Having previously been hosted in Key West, Florida, this year marks the fourth consecutive year the Meeting of the Minds has been hosted in Gulf Shores. The event is primarily held at The Hangout but also has events at other establishments around Gulf Shores, such as Embassy Suites, the Flora-Bama and LuLu’s, which is owned by Buffett’s youngest sister, Lucy Buffett.

“When we had the opportunity to come here, we’re not far from where Jimmy grew up,” Brehm said. “He cut his teeth around here playing music before we went to Nashville, and now of course they opened the Buffett Experience museum up there in Mobile, so it was kind of special to come back here and showcase where he started from his early days before he started moving around the country.”

Buffett, who was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, spent part of his childhood in Mobile and Fairhope. Buffett played along the Gulf Coast early in his music career but never let go of his roots as his career took off, returning to the area to perform shows, including a free concert on the beaches of Gulf Shores in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The event features daily musical performances from several artists and Buffett’s collaborators, including members of his backing band, the Coral Reefer Band, such as Jim Mayer and Will Kimbrough.

Buffett died in 2023, but Parrotheads have continued to carry his legacy into the future with events like Meeting of the Minds and the “Jimmy Buffett: Son of a Son of a Sailor Experience” exhibit opening at the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf in Mobile.

“The ‘party with a purpose’ attitude, somebody said that once and it carried on and we always said our people like to get together and have a good time, but we still all love to give back,” Brehm said. “That’s one of the biggest attributes of having a Parrothead club, is that they get together for good times. They get together to celebrate all the time, but there’s always like ‘How can we do more for the environment and whoever needs our help? What can we raise money for even on the smallest scale?’ or just ‘People need shoes. Everybody donate shoes.’ Stuff like that, it’s real easy to do and people make it sound like it’s so hard, but we’re all saying we’ll get together and listen to music and then raise a few bucks for something good, so they’re just all good people that are doing a good thing, but it all started with one man and a genre of music that nobody could actually explain, but everybody knew they liked it, and that’s kind of a cool thing about being a Parrothead.”