GULF SHORES — With closures of some public areas in place since April 28, residents and visitors might be wondering how they will be additionally affected by the Sand in My Boots set-up.

Morgan Wallen’s debut Sand in My Boots music festival will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of Hangout Music Festival May 16-18 with headliners Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Brooks & Dunn and Hardy.

Areas surrounding The Hangout restaurant, where the music festival will take place, will progressively be blocked off as necessary infrastructure is set up.

Grant Brown, director of recreation and cultural affairs for Gulf Shores, said road closures will start May 13 and last through May 20. Roads in "the T" section, including the last block of Highway 59 and most of Beach Boulevard that runs the length of the festival site, will be blocked off starting in "the early morning" of May 13. Starting May 15, the closure will extend a block down West Beach Boulevard.

The full festival site runs from West 3rd Street to East 3rd Street on Beach Boulevard, or from the new High Tide Daiquiris and Mimosas to the Waffle House in Gulf Shores.

As previously reported by GCM, these roads will remain closed throughout the event and will temporarily reopen from 6 a.m. to noon on May 19 to ease traffic issues the day after the festival is over. The north side of West Beach Boulevard, east of West 4th Street around Surfside Pizza and Ice Cream, will not be accessible to westbound traffic, and a detour is set to be in place. Normal traffic patterns will return on May 20.

The detour works as a "circular traffic flow" of one-way streets, Brown said. According to a traffic modifications map from the city, there will also be alternate routes encouraged to avoid the traffic and road closures around the festival site.

"If you're interested in staying away from the festival, watch for detour signs," Brown said. "We also ask for patience and care with more pedestrian activity. Work with us (the city) and the festival on this; we ask for patience."

According to a presentation at the Gulf Shores City Council meeting when the festival’s permits were approved, the earliest closures took place on April 28, 30 and May 1, which mostly closed off public and Hangout restaurant parking areas along with some portions of the city beach.

The next round of closures presented at the meeting took place on May 5, 7 and 8. On May 5, the residential parking lot, the west Gulf Place parking lot and the public beach surrounding the west stage were closed off to begin setting up the west stage, which will be next to the west Gulf Place parking lot, and the hospital/emergency response section, which will be in the residential parking lot.

On May 7, The Hangout restaurant was blocked off along with the public parking area east of the Surf Style across from The Hangout and the beach adjacent to the residential parking area, which is where the east stage will be.

On May 8, a portion of the beach directly south of The Hangout was closed. The remaining public beach surrounding the festival site closed May 12.

Construction for Sand in My Boots started "as soon as the volleyball was cleared" off the city's public beach from the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in Gulf Shores. Brown said plastic mats used for parking during the NCAA event is being reused by festival construction workers for the west stage area.

Brown said all closed areas, with the beachfront being the last, will be "returned to the public" on May 22, before the Memorial Day weekend sets in.