Hangout Music Festival Won't Return in 2025, and Here's What Happened to It
Sand In My Boots will take over Hangout's role and location, as well as its time slot during the year
Published Oct. 18 2024, 5:03 p.m. ET
For festival and music lovers, there are a few must-hit scenes that you can't miss out on during festival season. Of course, festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza, and others are must-attends. But if you're from the South, it can feel like getting to a good festival is a real challenge.
Enter: Hangout Music Festival. The three-day event brought music lovers and festival goers to the Gulf shores of Alabama for fun in the sun. But no more: Hangout Music Festival is going the way of the dinosaurs. So what happened? Here are the details you need to know about Hangout and what's next.
What happened to Hangout Music Festival? It's being replaced.
It all first started in 2009, in Gulf Shores, Ala. Along the Southern state's Gulf Coast, music lovers and festival fans from around the world converged to enjoy an annual three-day event in May.
Unfortunately, 2024 was the last Hangout Music Festival. The 15-year-old event is over, breaking hearts as people learn that they won't be returning to Gulf Shores in May to drink, dance, and vibe with their festival family. But all is not lost, because the festival is turning into something new.
In 2025, in Hangout's place, Morgan Wallen and AEG in cooperation will be unveiling Sand In My Boots. Sand In My Boots will take over Hangout's role and location, as well as its time slot during the year. Running May 16-18, 2025, Sand In My Boots will bring together some of the best in the industry and Morgan's status as superstar country singer can only help in securing the best of the best acts for the festival stages.
Hangout Music Festival brought the tunes to Alabama's Gulf shores.
Although it's exciting to see what happens with the new generation of festival, Sand In My Boots, it's a little sad to see the festival in its original form leave. After all, Hangout has been bringing the best in the industry to Alabama for over a decade now. Part of the appeal in the Deep South that is Alabama was that the music came from many genres and not just country, which tends to permeate life in the South.
Star performers over the years have included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lana Del Ray, Stevie Wonder, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Foo Fighters, OutKast, Mumford and Sons, The Weeknd, and many more. With vendors ranging across the best in catering, food, drink, and merchandise, it was the perfect place to enjoy both a weekend of music and a weekend at the beach.
Not everyone is entirely convinced about the change, however. Because Morgan is a country star, they're expecting a festival about sandy boots to lean heavily towards country music. In an Instagram post announcing the change, some fans weighed in through comments. One user wrote, "hangout fest is supposed to be a break from all the country artists we get in the state and south year-round… wow." Another added, "Celebrating 15 years of hangout by not having hangout is wild."
And another quipped, "oh great we were totally short of country concerts here in AL!" So clearly Morgan's team has some convincing to do to bring fans back to the Gulf Shores shores and get his festival up off the ground.
