As Gulf Shores considers the future of a major music festival, residents and business owners in Gulf Shores have made it very clear that the country-oriented Sand in My Boots fest held in May was a much, much bigger hit with them than recent editions of the Hangout Music Fest.

In fact, a community meeting held Thursday night at times seemed like a good-humored roast of the younger crowd for which the pop-oriented, multi-genre Hangout Fest has become known.

“My analogy has been, my own personal thoughts, [that] in the past, we had young kids with their daddy’s credit card here and not a whole lot for them to worry about,” Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft said in his introductory remarks. “They were on a free leash. So this year we had an older group that had their own credit card. And you

See Full Page