Yes, it’s true. Hangout Music Festival, the annual beach party that once brought some of the country’s biggest musical acts to the Gulf Coast’s sandy beaches, isn’t happening in 2026.
The three-day festival isn’t calling it quits, but does appear to be getting a new identity.
Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft broke the news during a city council meeting on Monday evening. “The Hangout Music Festival will not occur in 2026,” Craft said. “We will not have an event in 2026. We are already approving the event in 2027.”
Here’s what we know about the Hangout Music Festival 2026 cancellation.
Why was Hangout Music Festival 2026 canceled?
During the meeting, Craft said that event organizers were unable to attract the “type of talent” the city approved of before the application deadline passed.
“We will refuse to let them go back to the acts that we’ve had before, and they can’t, so they couldn’t do it,” Craft said. “They’ve got time now to pursue the type of talent we want on our beaches. To invite the right audience that we want on our beaches.”
Craft made allusions to the type of audience the city hopes to attract. He pointed to the last Hangout Music Festival, which was rebranded as “Sand in my Boots” and essentially taken over by Morgan Wallen, a controversial country music star who caught flak in 2021 when he was filmed saying a racist slur.
Will Hangout Music Festival return in 2027?
Craft said that the city was already working with organizers on its 2027 application, but it appears that the music festival, which once brought a range of acts from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters to Lana Del Rey and Kendrick Lamar, will look a bit different moving forward.
What is the Sand in my Boots festival?
In 2025, Hangout Music Festival rebranded to “Sand in my Boots” festival, a reference to a popular Morgan Wallen song, who curated the artists who played at the festival.
Unlike previous years, the festival’s headliners focused more on country music, bringing in Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Brooks & Dunn and Hardy.
The rest of the lineup also featured an uptick in country music artists along with acts like T-Pain, The War on Drugs, Wiz Khalifa and Three 6 Mafia.
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