Is this the future of Hangout Music Festival?
Now that the inaugural Sand in My Boots music festival has cleared out, that is the question elected officials, residents and festival organizers …
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Is this the future of Hangout Music Festival?
Now that the inaugural Sand in My Boots music festival has cleared out, that is the question elected officials, residents and festival organizers will be asking as they look ahead to options for next year.
The artists and experience was curated by country music superstar Morgan Wallen, marking Hangout’s 15th year since first playing for thousands at and around Gulf Shores Public Beach, anchored by The Hangout restaurant. His lineup signaled a shift from the pop and dance music experience Hangout had evolved into toward country and rap, with the Knoxville native sharing headliner billing with Post Malone, Brooks & Dunn and HARDY. Other artists included T-Pain, 2 Chainz, Alabama natives Riley Green and Ella Langley, Three 6 Mafia, Chase Rice, Diplo, The War on Drugs, Wiz Khalifa and Bailey Zimmerman. 3 Doors Down was supposed to be part of the mix but canceled this 2025 tour after lead singer Brad Arnold revealed he has Stage 4 cancer.
“This crowd is dope,” said Jayden Murdock, appointed manager at Roses and Blooms, a flower shop in Gulf Shores that sold flowers and bouquets at the festival. Set up next to the wedding chapel (yes, you could get married there or just do it for the social media content), Murdock’s booth was visited steadily throughout the three-day festival. “They’re so sweet. They’re giving me pins and things and even buying me flowers.”
She said she attended Hangout last year and enjoyed both, but she especially loved Riley Green and 2 Chainz this year.
The switch to a more country-focused lineup and experience came from locals who said that’s what they wanted. This was the last year that AEG Presents had a contract with the City of Gulf Shores to bring the festival here, so now the discussions will begin on whether they will get a new contract and, if so, for how long and in what format. The company, which has produced Hangout and managed it on-site since 2015, also puts on Stagecoach and California’s Country Music Festival.
“We’ve had almost no issues,” Grant Brown, director of recreation and cultural affairs for Gulf Shores, said Sunday afternoon about on-site public safety.
The mile-long site turns essentially into a miniature city for the event, complete with geofenced 911 calls to prevent the county’s main dispatch center from being inundated and FBI surveillance. Though exact numbers are not available yet, Brown said he expects medical calls to be much lower this year than the last few.
Gulf Shores Police Department recorded 37 arrests and 45 charges over the three-day period. Most of the charges (26) were for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, followed by six charges for public intoxication, underage possession of alcohol (4) and disorderly conduct (4).
Of the total arrests, 78% were male, and 20 of them were felonies.
The number marks a drop from last year when city and county police made a total of 94 arrests in 2024, 59.6% of whom were male. The most common charge (there were 131 charges total) was for unlawful possession of a controlled substance (78), followed by possession of marijuana-second (12) and public intoxication (12).
Last year's 94 was lower than the 107 arrests made in 2023 and 133 in 2022.
New this year was a day of pre-sales offered to residents in 67 ZIP codes spanning Escambia, Mobile and Baldwin counties. Brown said about 1,500 people bought local tickets. Once sales opened to the general public, the festival sold out at around 40,000 tickets in 90 minutes.
Hangout has seen its share of evolution. It was born out of the benefit concert Jimmy Buffett played in 2010 to show the world the Gulf Coast would survive the BP oil spill and to promote music and the arts as an important economic driver for the region. Trey Anastasio and TAB, Zac Brown Band, John Legend, Alison Krauss and Union Station, The Black Crowes and The Flaming Lips played, followed by Paul Simon, The Black Keys and Widespread Panic in 2011.
Lineups have booked everyone Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder and Outcast to Mumford and Sons, Weezer and Lenny Kravitz. The festival has hosted recent pop stars just before they took their meteoric rise, such as Sabrina Carpenter in 2023 and Chappel Roan last year.
Gulf Shores hosted 35,000 people for the 2010 concert, and Hangout has since put the Alabama Gulf Coast on the map nationally for tourists and transplants alike.
In 2011, it was reported the festival brought in $20 million. Last year, the economic impact was tagged at $60 million. This year, Brown said the estimate is $70 million, likely thanks to both increased ticket prices and an older crowd who ate and drank more.
Outside of the festival campus, Gulf Shores Seafood manager Austin Daily said while sales were still down, they did better this year than the last few years. During “normal Hangout,” he said the business would make $500 in sales a day.
He and businesses up and down Highway 59 south of Fort Morgan Road charged for parking, with prices ranging from $25-$40, but he said that didn’t make up for it all.
Lindsay Sholes, owner of Black Cat Vegan Bakery, posted on Facebook that she was excited to provide a “huge order” of pastries to Post Malone after having to turn him down last year because it was her first day open “and we couldn’t disappoint our customers waiting in line for us.”
Inside, Kale Troha, who owns Foam Coffee in Gulf Shores, had two booths set up, one in the VIP section near the main stage and another in The Midway section open to general admission. He said the crowd and experience from the back end was better this year, noting people in VIP spent more this year.
Another evolution visualized in what festival goers wore. Though still sporting all kinds of outfits and festival attire, largely, glitter was exchanged for cowboy hats, sneakers for boots, representing more traditional area and Southern demographics with Gulf of America t-shirts and MAGA hats displayed among general patriotic paraphernalia.
Brittany Covel said the people she picked up driving Uber and Lyft were nicer in previous years. This is the fourth festival she has worked as a rideshare.
She said more rideshare drivers are needed during an event like this, noting she drove until 3 a.m. each night, and surge pricing had people paying $100 “to go two or three miles.”
A shuttle service ran to several locations until around 12:45 a.m., Brown, with the city, said.
Even if the country theme sticks, Wallen likely won’t be able to return every year as he tours.
Brown said he isn’t sure when the mayor and city council will begin discussions about next year and the future of the festival and its format, but that it will be important for the public to be involved when they do.