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‘Sand In My Boots Festival’ Won’t Be Returning To Gulf Shores In 2026 As City Announces Hangout Fest Is Canceled Until 2027
Well that’s that.
After months of speculation, it’s finally official: Morgan Wallen‘s Sand In My Boots Festival won’t be returning to Gulf Shores, Alabama in 2026, after the city announced on Monday that Hangout Festival, which was rebranded as Sand In My Boots for 2025, is cancelled next year.
The announcement comes after the first version of Morgan’s festival drew high praise from the city and set the standard for the event going forward. The festival took place back in May as a one year takeover of Hangout Fest, with a lineup featuring Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Brooks & Dunn and HARDY, as well as a wide range of artists from different genres including Riley Green, Wiz Khalifa, T-Pain, Chase Rice, 49 Winchester, and Three 6 Mafia.
It was clear that the festival was going to be a hit after tickets sold out less than two hours after going on sale, and afterwards Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft had high praise for the crowd that the festival brought in:
“My analogy has been, my own personal thoughts, in the past, we had young kids with their daddy’s credit card here and not a whole lot for them to worry about. They were on a free leash. So this year we had an older group that had their own credit card. And you could certainly see that they were more disciplined. There were less problems…
Really it was a much better behaving crowd.”
A couple months ago, the Gulf Shores city council reviewed a proposal on whether or not to allow Hangout Festival to return in 2026, and the city’s director of economic development and public affairs made it clear that if it returned, they expected either Sand In My Boots festival to return, or a replacement that would draw the same type of crowd – or they may not grant them a permit to return in the future:
“Festival agrees the 2025 SIMB festival will serve as a benchmark for the type of event they shall offer in order to attract a similar audience to provide a positive reputational and economic impact for the community.”
The city ultimately approved a one year extension for the festival, which the mayor said would serve as a test for the future:
“Those conditions are going to be along the lines of, create the same group that we had this year… So we’re going to have to get comfortable that they’re going to be able to recreate that group of people we had on the beach, because it was dramatically different…
We have made it really clear. The only one we’re worried about right now is ’26. Can they do what they’re supposed to do, in ’26. The motivating factor there, if you can do it right, we can go forward. If you don’t, it’s over.”
While they didn’t come out and say it, it seems like the city’s message was pretty clear: They wanted Sand In My Boots to return for 2026.
Unfortunately, if the festival makes its return, it will have to wait another year.
In announcing the cancellation, the mayor placed the blame on festival organizers, saying they waited too long to book the caliber of acts they needed:
“We are already approving the event in 2027. We delayed too long, or they did, in their application to be able to get the kind of acts that we required them to have to be successful in 2026. We will refuse to let them go back to the acts that we’ve had before and so they couldn’t do it…
They canceled the 2026 event, but 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, that we proved last time, the last event, that could happen. We’re determined if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen that way again.”
(For reference, the 2024 version of Hangout Festival included Lana Del Rey, Zach Bryan, The Chainsmokers, Cage the Elephant, Sexxy Red and others, while 2023 was headlined by Red Hot Chili Peppers, SZA, Calvin Harris and Paramore).
Reading between the lines, it sounds like they really want a country festival (whether that’s Sand In My Boots or some other country festival) versus a pop/EDM festival that would draw teenagers and a younger crowd. And unfortunately, by this point in the year all the major artists are already booked for summer 2026.
Honestly, it’s smart to go ahead and cancel now. We’ve seen many times in the past what happens when a festival throws together a subpar lineup and ends up pulling the plug after the lineup’s been announced and tickets have been sold. If they want Sand In My Boots, or something like it, to return in 2027, go ahead and start planning now when artists are still booking shows for the following summer.
So while Sand In My Boots won’t be returning in 2026, it sounds like there’s still a possibility for 2027. At least if they mayor gets his way.The post ‘Sand In My Boots Festival’ Won’t Be Returning To Gulf Shores In 2026 As City Announces Hangout Fest Is Canceled Until 2027 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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