GULF SHORES, Ala. (WALA) - Some roads are now closed, and setup is underway for Morgan Wallen’s Sand in My Boots music festival in Gulf Shores. Forty thousand fans will see more than 30 acts over the three-day weekend.
Highway 59 was barricaded off at First Avenue as the entry points to the festival were set up on Beach Boulevard. This event is taking the place of the Hangout Music Festival which is normally on this weekend in May.
With so many people converging on the beach, public safety is a priority. The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and Homeland Security will all be assisting Gulf Shores Police. City officials also encourage folks to look out for their own safety.
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“Dehydration is one of our number one concerns. Be sure that before you come to the festival that you drink as much water as you’re able to,” encouraged Grant Brown with the city of Gulf Shores. “When you come into the festival, they don’t allow you to bring in any water bottles that have water in them or have liquid in them, but you’re welcome to bring in hydration packs, the Camelbacks, water bottles. They’ve got water filling stations all over the festival site.”
While public safety officials prepared for the crowds, sitework continued across the beachfront to get the festival ready to go. Visitors out sightseeing weren’t sure of what to make of all the barricades and detours. Lucas and Victoria Stephan were walking to a local restaurant with their sister and parents. Once they learned what was happening, they knew what to expect.
“I think the crowds are going to be like humongous because everybody likes festivals, especially like the main festivals. I think it’s probably going to be like packed,” Lucas said. “Yeah, very packed. Probably very packed,” Victoria added.
Out on the beachfront, folks at the Pink Pony Pub will have a front row seat all weekend long. It was a good lunch crowd for a Tuesday but nothing like what’s expected this weekend.
“It’s just the tens of thousands of people over a weekend. It’s crazy and we just look forward to catching some of them,” said veteran employee of Pink Pony Pub, a hopeful Dallas Beam.
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Those tens of thousands of people spend tens of millions of dollars while here according to the last Hangout Music Festival economic study which was done in 2014. This festival is the pre-Memorial Day kickoff to the tourist season and Brown said many benefit from it.
“That’s the main reason this festival is a three-day event. We try to target overnight stays to promote the economic impact to the lodging industry, to the restaurant industry, to the tourist income that we all thrive on here and it’s really created almost another Fourth of July in the month of May which would have been a very soft month,” Brown explained.
Through traffic towards Orange Beach or back to the west will be diverted from Highway 59 so motorists should follow detour signs. Traffic flow won’t get back to normal until the Tuesday after the festival. That’s because Monday and Tuesday are days for folks to get out of town and for equipment to come in and move the show out.
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