City Reviews Hangout Fest’s 2014 Site Plan
By Marc D. Anderson, al.com, February 18, 2014
GULF SHORES, Ala.–The lineup is set with organizers of the Hangout Festival inking top acts such as The Killers, OutKast, The Black Keys, Queens of the Stone Age, Pretty Lights and Jack Johnson along with more than 60 other groups for the four-day event in late May. But there’s still one more key signature that is needed.
When the city granted festival founder Shaul Zislin a five-year special events permit in 2010 it was based on the stipulation that the event stay in line with the city’s family-oriented image. And in order to ensure that agreement is followed, each year the council has to sign off on the festival’s site plan.
This year is no different with the council set to vote on a public assembly permit on Monday, Feb. 24. While the majority of the 2014 site footprint will remain the same with six stages covering about five blocks at the base of Ala. 59 at the city’s public beach, a few changes include the shifting of the Boom Boom Tent stage from facing south to southwest to improve access and moving the BMI Stage from the VIP area at the center of festival to an adjacent spot on the general admission grounds to avoid congestion in the confined VIP section.
One sticking point for the city that was not discussed during a Monday work session but is clearly on the site plan is a request to locate an MTV beach headquarters in the center of the beach between the main Hangout Stage and Chevy Stage, a site reserved for the “sky bar” at past events. MTV’s parent company, Viacom, holds rights to the festival’s concert footage.
During the meeting, Mayor Robert Craft said there were other amendments to the site plan that were “under discussion” and may or may not be be part of the final request.
Reached by AL.com on Tuesday, Craft said the city’s hesitation is based on concerns about what exactly will take place at the MTV area that, according to the site plan, looks to take up a footprint the size of Zislin’s nearby 18,000-square-foot Hangout restaurant.
“That is part of trying to get a better understanding of what they’re going to do there and what their function is; just exactly what they’re doing,” Craft said. “If they’re going to do any broadcasts from there, are they screened? … Are we comfortable that the vision that is given is consistent with the vision that is there, that has typically been there and doesn’t evolve into something that doesn’t present us in an accurate family-friendly light? And I say that very carefully. Certainly this is not censorship, I don’t have any desire for it to be. But it is important for us to have some reputational or image control.”
And that protection of image was a major factor back in September 2010 when the council approved the five-year commitment, following the inaugural festival in May. “If we have one bad year, we can pull the plug,” the mayor had said. And Zislin was on board, too, saying, “If it’s not good for the city, it’s not good for us.”
Since that time the festival has become an economic hot rod for the Alabama Gulf Coast, essentially extending the tourism season by a week. Results from a city-funded Auburn University study found that the festival had a $32.1 million direct impact on the local economy.
With the 2014 site plan on the table, Craft said the council will ultimately decide on the issue but from his conversations with organizers he’s been told the “live” broadcasts are vetted for inappropriate content through a few seconds’ delay.
“We just have to get our arms around exactly what will be going on there,” the mayor said. “My initial conversations with (Sean O’Connell), who represents Shaul, is I think that it is controllable and it is positive.”
In addition to discussions on the site plan Monday night, city staff talked about some adjustments to the traffic flow around the festival.
Last year the city implemented a network of mostly one-way streets to keep traffic flowing as much as possible, which was deemed a success. This year, Public Work Director Mark Acreman said they will adjust some of street access points, such as allowing some two-way traffic on north-south streets, to provide easier access to condos and businesses around the festival’s footprint.
The fifth annual Hangout Music Festival will take place May 16-18 on the beach at the foot of Ala. 59 in Gulf Shores, with a Kick-Off Party on tap Thursday, May 15.