GULF SHORES — Morgan Wallen’s debut Sand in My Boots music festival will be held as a celebration of Hangout Music Festival's 15th anniversary, which also marks the last year of the franchise's event agreement with the City of Gulf Shores.

The festival will take place May 16-18 with headliners Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Brooks & Dunn and Hardy. Earlier this year, the 40,000 tickets for the event sold out after 90 minutes.

Grant Brown, the recreational and cultural affairs director for Gulf Shores, said he felt the “huge demand” for tickets was because of an interest in artists like Wallen at “this type of event.”

Brown said around $60 million was brought in last year from Hangout Music Festival-related activities.

“This event has created almost a Fourth of July impact in May,” Brown said. “It’s a big deal for the city.”

Brown said the city plans to hold a discussion after the festival to see if a new contract for “three, five or 10 years” is something the city and the festival partners, AEG Presents, want.

Discussions will also consider whether the festival will go back to being Hangout or if it will remain as Sand in My Boots, which has been “cultivated” by a partnership with Wallen. Brown said Wallen likely won’t be able to be a headliner each year as he typically tours every other year.

Hangout in the past has attracted visitors from the South and across the country and shown them “Gulf Shores is here.” Brown said events like this “show off our beautiful beaches” and works to “drive our economy.”

He encouraged residents to be “careful to not forget that” when faced with “inconveniences” brought on by events like the festival. He said events like this allow locals to “enjoy the normal quality of life” throughout the rest of the year.

Since Sand in My Boots will bring an “unknown” type of festivalgoers compared to the regular Hangout Fest, Brown said he’s “not sure what this crowd will be like” but that the city plans to look at the difference in crowds when discussing the future of the Hangout contract. He mentioned how if the crowd is “rowdier,” this will have an impact on the discussion “for sure.”

“We don’t want to become like the Panama City crowd,” Brown said.

Even though the festival has attracted more visitors each year, the festival site “continues to shrink” as “more development” comes to the beaches of Gulf Shores.

Brown mentioned how the site had to work around the new Embassy Suites under construction across Beach Boulevard from The Hangout restaurant as that area used to be a part of the festival site. He mentioned another development will be going up next to the Embassy Suites soon that will also be removed from the festival site plan.

“More development has come to the area as the tourist numbers have changed,” Brown said.

CITY INFLUENCE ON POTENTIAL FUTURE CONTRACT

As previously reported by GCM, at the March 24 Gulf Shores City Council meeting where the event permit was approved for Sand in My Boots, Councilman Gary Sinak said he attended last year’s festival. While he was there, he said he heard “God-awful, foul language” during one of the performances. He wasn’t sure who was singing.

“I thought part of our conditions for approval was they weren’t to do that or talk to their bands (about not swearing in songs),” Sinak previously said. “We need to reiterate all that because that (sound) goes out to all the neighborhoods, and I just don’t think it’s proper.”

Brown responded, saying it was a “difficult challenge” each year at Hangout Fest.

“There are groups and artists that are put into the mix, and the city has some oversight, but very limited oversight, into which performers can actually perform," Brown previously said. "There are safety measures within the documents that could cause for us to pull the plug, if you will, on certain artists, (but) we have not done that in the past.”

Mayor Robert Craft said at the meeting the company is "well aware" of how this year's festival will impact a decision to continue the event in Gulf Shores.

Brown recently told GCM that, because of First Amendment rights, the city doesn’t have a say in what can and can’t be said during performances. He said the city can push the potential future contract to be like “our community goals.”

“We can’t dictate content, and we’re not going to try,” Brown said, “but we can ensure our family-friendly goals align with the music festival’s goals moving forward.”

He also mentioned how suggestive language or swearing “doesn’t offend” everyone in “the world today.” Brown said just because he was not a fan of what some of the artists some years have sang about doesn’t mean he has a say in whether they perform.

“My personal opinion can’t be a legal requirement,” he said.