Country hangout with Morgan Wallen's Sand in My Boots Festival in Gulf Shores

GULF SHORES, Alabama – The Hangout Music Festival is coming to the country in 2025.

The show's producers say country star Morgan Wallen will present the “Sand in My Boots” festival on the beaches of Gulf Shores in May.

The usual hip-hop and rock lineup is gone. Instead, three days of country music with Wallen and other headliners. Wallen posted a video online promising to bring his dream music festival to Gulf Shores.

The 2025 show will be the producers' final year of their 10-year contract with Gulf Shores. The big announcement caused some confusion.

Hangout Festival producers say Wallen wanted to bring his festival vision to life and give it his all for his fans. Grant Brown of the City of Gulf Shores addressed the change.

“It doesn’t exactly replace the Hangout Music Festival,” Brown says. “It is a completely new concept for the music festival. Hangout is still the organization hosting the event. They still have permission to hold the event.”

“I love Morgan Wallen,” Cox says. “I think he’s going to bring a great group of artists. So I’m okay with that.”

But Cox says others in town don't like the festival.

“Many locals don’t like their island being invaded by tourists,” says Cox. “We live here. We have lived here for almost five years and are entrepreneurs. We like it when people are here.”

The city of Gulf Shores says the music festival has received complaints in recent years about loud music and large crowds. But he says the festival has worked with the community over the years to ensure these issues are addressed.

“They introduced this new ambassador program in 2022 and it has had a huge impact on their impact in this local area. “So they've ticked a lot of boxes over the last few years to address some of those concerns.”

The festival will announce the music program and further information on ticket sales next week.

The Sand in My Boots festival with Wallen takes place from May 16th to 18th.