As of right now, Country Thunder Florida is still on… but they’ve got a whole lot of work to do in the next month or so. The country music festival known as Country Thunder Florida is supposed to take place May 8 through the 10 at St. Pete Beach at the TradeWinds Resort. I used the word “supposed” in place of “set to” because… there’s a whole slew of issues that have popped up for the festival. Gavin Adcock, Zach Top and Kane Brown are all scheduled to be headliners at the festival, as you can see in this post from Country Thunder: View this post on Instagram However, a City Commission meeting that took place back on March 24 revealed that Country Thunder Florida really has to kick it into gear if they want all of those country artists to actually have a chance to play in front of fans. Here’s the deal. Country Thunder has yet to secure a number of necessary permits, and we’re (*checks calendar*) a little over five weeks away from the event itself. Below you can see all of the plans and resolutions that Country Thunder – which expects to bring in over 10,000 festival goers – has yet to provide to St. Pete Beach: -Traffic plan -Transportation plan -Parking plan -Waste management plan -Site plan -Hold-harmless agreement -Certificate of insurance -Department of Environmental Protection permit -Resolution of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission concerns That’s a rather long list of requirements that all have to be provided in a little over a month. Kim Blevins, the executive director of Country Thunder, told commissioners at the March 24 City Commission meeting that they are aware of the uphill battle they are facing, but promised that the festival is willing to comply and work with St Pete Beach, according to TBN Weekly: “We know we’ve got some issues that we face that we have to address. We know we have to be good stewards of the property, and we’re here to work directly with your community, not against you.” And you might have saw the last two items on that above list – the Department of Environmental Protect permit and the Resolution of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission concerns – and thought to yourself, “What’s the deal there?” Well, it appears that organizers of the music festival didn’t realize that the three days in May they chose also falls during the shorebird nesting and sea turtle season. Blevins says they had already booked their 2026 lineup for those dates when they became aware of turtle season: “We don’t want to impede on any wildlife. But at this point, with our talent booked, it’s difficult for us to get out of those dates without a very large penalty. We would have to pay our artists to try and move those dates.” Country Thunder doesn’t have a back up plan, and they apparently hope that everything falls into place within the next couple of weeks. The only plan they really have is to get through 2026, and then shift the dates of Country Thunder Florida to outside of turtle nesting season in the future. Because of fragile environment, the city is drafting memorandum of understanding that it would require before handing over a permit to Country Thunder. That includes “no drones or pyrotechnics, a sound cap of 85 decibels, day-of-event bird and turtle monitoring, and a prohibition on future large-scale events during nesting season.” And St Pete Beach has already told Country Thunder to expect backlash from locals and environment enthusiasts who will come after the festival for planning – and potentially executing – the three day country music event during turtle season. A future meeting will decide if Country Thunder is provided their special events permit. All of that to say… if you have tickets to Country Thunder Florida, keep a close eye on any developments or announcements from the music festival in the next couple of weeks.The post Country Thunder Florida Doesn’t Have Proper Permits & The Music Festival Is Only A Couple Of Weeks Away first appeared on Whiskey Riff.