Hangout Festival Eyes Australia

Alabama’s beachside Hangout Music Festival, which draws 35,000 each May, could be heading to Australia.

– Hangout Music Festival
The 2013 edition of the festival in beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Australian promoter TEG Dainty applied to the Gold Coast council in December 2016 to stage it on both ends of the popular Coolangatta-Greenmount beach tourist attraction.

In its pitch to the council, TEG Dainty said it was looking at a crowd size of 35,000. It could fill the vacuum left by Big Day Out, which drew that number to its Gold Coast stop.

The Australian festival would take place over two days in mid-November, to become the first of the state’s summer events.

The council almost turned down the proposal March 28 when one councilor objected over its impact on the beach.

However, as the Gold Coast Bulletin reported, Mayor Tom Tate stepped in and delayed a vote, saying that he wanted TEG Dainty’s Melbourne-based president and CEO Paul Dainty to address the council on its concerns, and the positives of staging the festival on its turf.

A date has not been fixed, as the state is cleaning up the multimillion-dollar impact of Cyclone Debbie whose winds exceeded 260 kph. The Alabama hangout is co-produced by Goldenvoice.