Hangout Festival Cancels 2026 Event

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Alabama’s Gulf Shores will not be hosting Hangout Festival in 2026, Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft revealed during last night’s (Dec. 8) city council meeting.

“The Hangout Music Festival will not occur in 2026,” he said. “We will not have an event in 2026. 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. So they couldn’t do it and so they canceled the 2026 event.

“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,” he continued. “We’re determined if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen that way again.”

In a new statement released today (Dec. 9) by Craft, he states:

“The city’s initial 10-year franchise agreement for the Hangout Music Festival was scheduled to conclude following the 2025 event. The city elected to defer consideration of the requested extension until the festival’s outcomes could be evaluated, with input from our residents.

This year’s festival received overwhelming community support, and in late July, the City Council approved a two‐year extension. However, the compressed timeline created by this decision did not provide organizers sufficient runway to produce a successful festival in 2026. As a result, the producers have elected not to proceed with a 2026 event.

We’re thankful that festival leadership has taken our community’s comments about the event seriously and is committed to delivering a world-class festival. We appreciate that they are being thoughtful in creating a lineup that will be impactful to our local economy. All parties are focused on planning a strong and well‐executed music festival, and we look forward to welcoming them back in 2027.”

“The decision to not move forward with a festival for 2026 was tied to Hangout Festival and the permitting approval timeline for the site,” shared AEG. “We will share news about future events at the site at the appropriate time.”

Madison Hahnen
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