Hangout hangover: Nearly 200 arrests; nearby businesses mixed on crowd

 GULF SHORES, Alabama — Law officers made 189 arrests during the 3-day Hangout Music Festival this past weekend in Gulf Shores, about 60 percent of the arrests involving drugs.

Also among the charges were underage alcohol, driving under the influence, public intoxication, disorderly conduct and obstructing government operations.
Two people were arrested for selling knock-off Hangout Festival T-shirts on the streets outside the venue, according to Gulf Shores police Lt. Bill Cowan.
The law-enforcement effort at the festival involved at least 100 officers. They came from the Gulf Shores Police Department, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, police forces in Daphne, Foley and Mobile, and the Alabama Beverage Control Board.
The arrest numbers, according to police reports:

• 121 drug arrests and 31 for public intoxication.

• 24 arrests for disorderly conduct, five for obstructing governmental operations, four for underage possession of alcohol and two for DUI.

• 2 arrests for operating without a business license.

Neither Gulf Shores police nor the Sheriff’s Office provided further details about those charged.
2 businesses, 2 reactions to festival crowd
The arrest totals amount to a small fraction of the 35,000 people reported to have attended the festival each day. Two business leaders in the area offered varying opinions about the demeanor of the crowds.
Ryan Heflin, a manager at Papa Rocco’s, just a few blocks from the beach, described the weekend as the second busiest in the restaurant’s 26-year history.
The crowd ranged in age from the 20s to 50s, he said, and most appeared “laid back and happy they were down here at the beach.”
Don Stafford, the owner of Ribs & Reds, said he talked with officers who claimed that police could have made a thousand marijuana arrests. Stafford said he believed that many of those attending the festival “abused our beach.”
He added that he turned some away because they appeared to be drunk or didn’t meet the restaurant’s dress code, and shooed away a few people who were “using the bathroom” on his property, located a block from the festival area.
“It seemed to be a lot of people in town that don’t particularly care about anybody else,” Stafford said. “To me, we can do things that don’t spur on that type of atmosphere. It’s an atmosphere we don’t need to promote.”