@jjwil325
It's been a few weeks since Hangout Music Festival (HMF) 2016 at Gulf Shores, AL and I'm still finding sand in places I don't want to see sand. My group's consensus - Hangout Music Fest was amazing! It is definitely worth checking out if you've been wondering if you should make the investment. As a former Alabamian, the festival was also a great reminder that you'll never meet a stranger in this state. I met folks from all over the country. So take from this review some lessons learned from Hangout Festival.
It's been a few weeks since Hangout Music Festival (HMF) 2016 at Gulf Shores, AL and I'm still finding sand in places I don't want to see sand. My group's consensus - Hangout Music Fest was amazing! It is definitely worth checking out if you've been wondering if you should make the investment. As a former Alabamian, the festival was also a great reminder that you'll never meet a stranger in this state. I met folks from all over the country. So take from this review some lessons learned from Hangout Festival.
The Music:
The lineup this year was sick! I lost my mind during Alabama Shakes and Florence + the Machine was everything I could have dreamed of to close off the festival. Our group created a custom Spotify music playlist featuring all the artists from the Hangout Music Fest. HMF also partnered with Pandora music where users could listen to artists through a custom channel as well. The production quality was on point. I feared two things at the festival: beach wind and unbalanced sound. I learned soon that these were not things to worry about. There were three stages on the beach and believe it or not there was not major noise pollution. If you were in proximity of a stage, that was the show you were going to enjoy. The sound engineers were sure of that. All stages were within a comfortable distance to each other. Some of my favorite parts of the festival also included the collaborations and the unknowns. If you're familiar with the artists on the lineup you can see that there are a lot of collaborations between the artists. This carried over into HMF where these collaborations would also unfolded on stage. Say what?! Just take Griswold's and Walk the Moon and Daya and Chainsmokers as examples. HMF was a simple reminder to celebrate music. I listened to every single artist before the festival and now have new artists that I respect and hope to see their popularity rise! Huge shout outs to Griswolds, Lizzo, Flume, Givers, and Leon Bridges and all the entertainment! For your favorite artist, you might have to skip a show if you want to be front row or at least be willing to fight like hell through the crowd - with pure dedication you might just make it toward the front by the end of the show.
Simple take-a-ways:
The lineup this year was sick! I lost my mind during Alabama Shakes and Florence + the Machine was everything I could have dreamed of to close off the festival. Our group created a custom Spotify music playlist featuring all the artists from the Hangout Music Fest. HMF also partnered with Pandora music where users could listen to artists through a custom channel as well. The production quality was on point. I feared two things at the festival: beach wind and unbalanced sound. I learned soon that these were not things to worry about. There were three stages on the beach and believe it or not there was not major noise pollution. If you were in proximity of a stage, that was the show you were going to enjoy. The sound engineers were sure of that. All stages were within a comfortable distance to each other. Some of my favorite parts of the festival also included the collaborations and the unknowns. If you're familiar with the artists on the lineup you can see that there are a lot of collaborations between the artists. This carried over into HMF where these collaborations would also unfolded on stage. Say what?! Just take Griswold's and Walk the Moon and Daya and Chainsmokers as examples. HMF was a simple reminder to celebrate music. I listened to every single artist before the festival and now have new artists that I respect and hope to see their popularity rise! Huge shout outs to Griswolds, Lizzo, Flume, Givers, and Leon Bridges and all the entertainment! For your favorite artist, you might have to skip a show if you want to be front row or at least be willing to fight like hell through the crowd - with pure dedication you might just make it toward the front by the end of the show.
Simple take-a-ways:
- Give yourself a break! There is usually only about 10-15 minutes in between each of the groups. Be sure to make time in the schedule for food, sleep, or other fun.
- Bring a water container. They have plenty of water fill-up stations.
- Sun tan spray and lotion...it is your friend.
- Not your favorite band, you don't have to be front row. For some musicians some of sat as far back as possible where we could still hear and see the show without the annoyance of a crowd.
- If you have AT&T don't expect data usage, call signal worked. I wish we had walkies.
- Verizon data and calls worked best from what I could tell.
- Download the HMF app and choose to receive notifications. If you customize your schedule on the app, they'll send reminders for your favorite performers, schedule changes, and festival updates.
- Hats and shades should be mandatory! Protect your face.
- Bring a towel. If you sweat know the sun will destroy you. Towel was also great for sitting in the sand.
- Flip flops were the preferred shoe of choice. Going from beach sand to pavement was killer.
- Shirt or no shirt. Just have a plan for the sun. Lots wore some type of tank or beach shirt. After dancing in the sun and the Alabama heat, you'll be glad you did so.
- Swim suite or trunks. It's really a mix. Some will be in their swim wear and some will not. Go with what you feel would be most comfortable. There's not much access to beach or pol (unless you choose VIP)
Parking:
This was initially pretty stressful let me tell you. Our group didn't purchase the $50.00 shuttle pass. We were told that our condo would provide shuttle to and from the beach. Except they misled us. We found out only days before the festival. After we scrambled to find shuttle parking tickets, we reached out directly to them and this is what they told us: "We have added bike parking and taxi stands. If you plan to drive, we recommend arriving early to snag one of the limited spots on the street." Not very helpful. Picture this. There was a rain delay on day one. We're hanging out in the condo and begin to call taxis and every single taxi company's phone line was busy. This was two hours before the event and one thing was apparent, taxi was not our route to HMF. Our condo was six miles away, walking was also out. We took the truck - riding in the back of a pick-up is not illegal in Alabama. The first day we found parking for $20.00. However, at the end of the event, It took us an hour to get out of the parking area that first night. Shuttles take priority on the roads and we some how snaked ourself to the back of a one exit street with 3-4 streets leading into it. Needless to say not good. So we learned after that first night where to park and for days 2 and 3, we payed $0.00 to park. A savings for the group of $280.00. This did mean that we carpooled together and left together each day.
Hangout Music Festival 2016 gave my friend group an amazing experience in Gulf Shores, AL. Most of us have already thrown out a 2017 return. Some of us are calling it better than Lollapalooza. Go and see for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
This was initially pretty stressful let me tell you. Our group didn't purchase the $50.00 shuttle pass. We were told that our condo would provide shuttle to and from the beach. Except they misled us. We found out only days before the festival. After we scrambled to find shuttle parking tickets, we reached out directly to them and this is what they told us: "We have added bike parking and taxi stands. If you plan to drive, we recommend arriving early to snag one of the limited spots on the street." Not very helpful. Picture this. There was a rain delay on day one. We're hanging out in the condo and begin to call taxis and every single taxi company's phone line was busy. This was two hours before the event and one thing was apparent, taxi was not our route to HMF. Our condo was six miles away, walking was also out. We took the truck - riding in the back of a pick-up is not illegal in Alabama. The first day we found parking for $20.00. However, at the end of the event, It took us an hour to get out of the parking area that first night. Shuttles take priority on the roads and we some how snaked ourself to the back of a one exit street with 3-4 streets leading into it. Needless to say not good. So we learned after that first night where to park and for days 2 and 3, we payed $0.00 to park. A savings for the group of $280.00. This did mean that we carpooled together and left together each day.
Hangout Music Festival 2016 gave my friend group an amazing experience in Gulf Shores, AL. Most of us have already thrown out a 2017 return. Some of us are calling it better than Lollapalooza. Go and see for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
