Festival Draws 35,000 Fans…
But Is It A Good Thing For Condo Owners?
By Clayton Wallace, Condo Owner Exclusive
The 77 bands have packed up and moved on to other gigs on their summer tours. The beaches have been cleaned up and are now packed with summer visitors.
But for three days in May, Gulf Shores, Ala., played host to more than 35,000 music lovers who paid $150 or more per ticket to attend the Third Annual Hangout Music Festival, which features two music stages set up directly on the public beach area and three more stages within a block of the beach.
The festival, which ran from May 18–20, sold out of its general admission tickets within a few days of going on sale. It featured such A-list musical acts as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Dave Matthews Band. The festival drew fans from all 50 states and several foreign countries, according to Gulf Shores Director of Recreation and Cultural Affairs Grant Brown.
For condo owners with their units in a rental program, the influx of people—which included not only ticket holders but also support personnel, volunteers and the bands as well—it meant a sold-out weekend.
In fact, festival founder Shaul Zhislin, owner of The Hangout restaurant and several Surf Style retail businesses, said partnerships forged with the condo management companies are the most important ones the festival has. He said when he began receiving reports from the management companies that ticket holders were making reservations to check into units as early as May 15, organizers decided to add a “kick-off party” on May 17. “We sold 11,000 tickets to the kick-off party,” he said. “And we could have sold 5,000 more.”
Zhislin said the feedback from the rental companies was invaluable, and he said the kick-off party was good for the community. “Our area is not built to handle that number of people wandering around looking for something to do,” he said. “We decided it was better to have something for them on the festival grounds.”
He readily admitted the typical person who attends the festival does not fit the mold of the average summer tourist. Festival-goers tend to skew to the college-age and young professionals. However, in an interview with Condo Owner last year, Zhislin said marketing information from the second Hangout festival indicated the average household income for festival-goers was in excess of $150,000 per year. “We don’t have that information available yet for this year’s festival,” he said. “But we had a tremendous number of repeat customers this year.” He said that would indicate that trend shouldn’t change much for this year’s crowd.
Bender Realty Owner Bill Bender echoed Zhislin’s assessment. “We were 100 percent booked, and our renters were a young crowd, but not necessarily college-aged kids either,” he said.
However, he added that his company was proactive when it came to booking units for the weekend. “When we had people calling to make a reservation for a young family, we would tell them that the festival was taking place that weekend and it may not be the best weekend to come down.”
The company’s proactive approach seemed to work well. “When the festival ended and the bars would shut down at 2 a.m., people would head back to their units. We had no calls from upset renters about the noise,” he said. “It was probably because everyone here that weekend was here for the festival. People were certainly lively, but they were a well-mannered group.”
Bender went on to say his company had no real issues with damage to units or with security. “We had no security issues and no damage to any of our condos,” he said. “We had a few housekeeping issues, but not a single issue with any real damage to our units.”
Sugar Sands Realty & Management owner Robert Stuart II said his company’s rental units were also 100 percent occupied during the festival weekend. “We really didn’t have any problems with any of our guests,” he said. “We actually had more problems last year. This year it was pretty relaxed.”
Stuart said typically when bands such as the ones that play at the festival come to town, he hears stories of the police being called for various incidents. “I’ve heard nothing like that this year,” he said. “I was expecting many more problems than what we actually had. As far as I’m concerned, I’d love to see something like this during the fall as well.”
Meyer Real Estate Corporate Relations Director Sarah Kuzma said the festival was a shot in the arm for their owners. “We didn’t completely sell out our units in Fort Morgan and Perdido Key, but we were close,” she said. “Our Gulf Shores units were sold out in January, and our Orange Beach units sold out just a little after that.” She said the demand for units during that weekend allowed the company to begin charging their summer rates a week early.
Kuzma echoed Bender and Stuart with regard to any issues with their guests. “We were very, very pleased with the quality of our guests,” she said. “As opposed to excess wear and tear to our properties, we found that since the festival had performers on stage from morning until late at night, the guests were only rarely in their properties.”
Brown of the City of Gulf Shores said while the event places a tremendous amount of pressure on city personnel, they have learned from past Hangout Festivals and large-scaled beach concerts such as Jimmy Buffett, Bon Jovi and Brad Paisley. He said the city now has its preparations down to a science. “We have a manual, and now when we begin making preparations for the festival, we reach for the manual, and things have run smoothly,” he said. “One thing we’ve learned over the past three years is we’ve become more comfortable with these big events.”
Brown, too, was complimentary of the behavior of festival-goers. “We had fewer than half the arrests this year than we had last year,” he said. “We had 189 arrests in 2011 and only 71 this year. We had 20 on Friday, 32 on Saturday and 19 on Sunday. When you think about it, we had more than 35,000 people on the beaches each day and only 71 arrests made. That’s a very small percentage.” He said the number of emergency calls to which the city’s fire/rescue crews responded was also fewer than in 2011.
While most businesses reported few adverse issues with the festival or the visitors it brought to town, Brown said there were a couple of restaurants just outside the footprint of the festival that reported issues dealing primarily with parking for their employees.
One of those restaurants was Gulf Island Grill. Owner Fred Peninger said it was a surprise to him when he was told on May 17 that the public parking adjacent to his restaurant was to be utilized exclusively by city vehicles. “I paid to have that parking lot built, with the understanding that my employees and customers could utilize it. My employees were going to have to pay $40 to buy a shuttle pass and take the festival shuttle to work,” he said. However, he said after speaking to city officials, they came to an understanding and he was able to utilize part of the lot for his employees during the festival.
Peninger said he had another issue with how the shuttles, which were actually Greyhound-sized buses, were loading and unloading right in front of his restaurant. “When they would get off the buses, they (security officers) wouldn’t let the passengers cross the street to get to the restaurant for safety reasons,” he said. However, he believes logistical issues like this could be worked out with festival organizers in advance of next year’s festival. “Overall, we had a good weekend,” he said. “I’m not saying it wouldn’t have been better without the logistical issues, but as a whole, I think the festival is good for the area and good for the businesses.”
One thing city leaders, business owners and festival organizers universally agree upon is the far-reaching effect the festival has in attracting new visitors to the area. With festival tickets sold to people from every state and even foreign countries, it exposes the Alabama Gulf Coast to people well beyond the traditional Southeastern market that makes up the bulk of the area’s marketing plans. “We’re most excited about the new visitors the festival brings to town,” said Kuzma of Meyer Real Estate. “Visitors come in from parts of the country where we normally don’t have the budget to advertise.”
Zhislin said in today’s market, businesses that make their money from tourism must think globally—which is a change from the way things have been done traditionally. “It used to be that if you lived in Mississippi, you would get in your car and drive to your vacation in Gulf Shores, Pensacola, Destin or Panama City Beach,” he said. “It’s not that way anymore. People fly more than they used to, and they can fly anywhere. The festival opens up this area to people from across the country.”
Brown said not only is the exposure in other parts of the country beneficial, but the age and demographics of the festival-goers make for long-termed relationships. “The average age of the festival-goers is in their 20’s,” he said. “They are getting ready to have families and are beginning the most lucrative time in their careers. If we show them a great time while they’re here for the festival, they’ll remember that and come back because of the great memories they have here.”
It’s not only the festival-goers that had a great time while at the festival. The bands loved the area, and were very complimentary about lodging in condos as opposed to traditional hotel rooms. “When many of the artists were here, they said the hospitality they received was such that they want to come back,” Brown said.
The New Orleans-based band The Revivalists won a national contest to earn a spot at the festival. While here, the band stayed at one of the beachfront condos within walking distance of the festival. Lead singer David Shaw said staying at their condo was a breath of fresh air. “I mean all you have to do is walk out the door and you have the beautiful white sand and the gulf,” he said. “That’s something special for a guy like me who moved here after going to Ohio State University. It really beats crashing on a buddy’s couch.”
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