Hangout Music Festival is canceled — at least for now.
The festival, renamed Sand in My Boots, was scheduled for May 2026, but Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft announced Monday that the town’s annual music festival will not be held this upcoming year.
Craft said the reason for the cancellation was the inability of the festival organizers to obtain confirmations of artists who play the desired style of music.
“We will refuse to let them go back to the acts that we’ve had before, so they couldn’t do it,” Mayor Craft said. “So they cancelled 2026. They’ve got time to pursue the type of talent we want on our beaches, to invite the right audience that we want on our beaches.”
For more than a decade, the festival has not only been a staple in the Southeast, but an incredibly large profit stream for Gulf Coast businesses and tax revenue.
Hangout Music Festival has showcased various genres over the years and given the stage to musicians of all kinds, from bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers to singers like Zach Bryan.
Craft said the city and production company are already working toward a lineup and event for the spring of 2027.
The event was called Hangout Music Festival from its inception in 2010, and only in 2025 was it rechristened Sand in My Boots by country singer Morgan Wallen.
The event has run annually, except for two years of cancellations during the COVID outbreak — and now again in 2026.
Jim Zig Zeigler is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News. His beat includes the positive and colorful about Alabama – her people, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former State Auditor and Public Service Commissioner. You can reach him at [email protected]
