Now in its 13th year, Hangout Music Fest 2024 is more than a 3-day concert, it's a music lover’s paradise. Hosted on the white sand beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama, Hangout serves as the ultimate kickoff to summer, with equal parts high energy party and relaxing tropical vacation, where the top artists of the moment descend upon a stunning setting that boasts seaside beach clubs and in-ground swimming pools at the main stage, plus delicious food, luxury VIP options, and more for their fans to enjoy. Gulf Shores is just a short drive from the Smith Lake area (and very convenient to the Pensacola, FL and Mobile, AL airports) and offers an array of lodging packages that include beach houses, condominiums and hotels, making it the perfect destination for road trippers and group travelers. Hangout has been awarded as Pollstar’s “Music Festival of the Year” and is continuously recognized as one of the best festivals in the US. The festival also adds over $40 million into the local economy each year.

For 2024, all ticket types can be bundled into 4-packs  and paired with shuttle passes or event merchandise for a discount, if added at the time of initial purchase. The Hangout team is also standing by to accommodate large groups looking to build custom vacation or staycation lodging packages for fans near and far.

​As part of Hangout’s efforts to support the local community, the festival launched its Earn-A-Ticket Program (in partnership with Propeller) last year, encouraging interested festival-goers in the Gulf Shores area to take action online and volunteer their time in exchange for festival tickets and additional prizes. Over 75 volunteers attended Hangout’s Beach Cleanup with the Alabama Coastal Foundation and Fort Morgan Civic Association, collecting a total of 3,860 pounds of trash along four beach locations in the Fort Morgan area. Details for Hangout’s 2024 Earn-A-Ticket Program can be found on their site . 

The dawn of a new lake season arrives with an official kick-off around spring break each year. The fact that many schools start spring vacations annually at the end of March means the lake gets busy well before summer.  Those of us who live on Smith Lake full time have the good fortune to be able to enjoy a very calm and serene lake during the many months off-season, but the inevitable long on-season period often lasts from late March well into October, sometimes later depending on weather in a given year.  There are years when our family can remember waterskiing, kayaking or paddleboarding into early December, but it's not every year that happens.  

Early spring is a good time for all of us to reflect on how we’ll react to the rush of more people, boats and activity overall.  The words we cherish most are TOLERANCE and RESPECT.  Every single one of us has a different way that we experience lake life.  But that is not to say that we cannot appreciate the ways that others enjoy their lake experience in their short summer season of primarily late May through early August.  Everyone is doing their own thing, in their own way, and it’s all good.  We like to think that collectively, we simply make a silent pact as a community to stay drama free and tolerant of one another.  Having respect for others is the key to making sure we can keep that pact intact.
 
It’s simple, and listed below are just a few ways to exhibit respect showing basic good boating etiquette, and therefore earning tolerance from others as we all enjoy lake days in our individual ways.

​Don’t be “that guy” - get your good boating etiquette hat ON well ahead of season!

Again, these are all just some favorite community ideas collected from our surveys in the Smith Lake Community Facebook group about how to have a wonderful time on Smith Lake while being conscious of community etiquette.  

Written by The Lakeside LIfe Team
Photography by Terry Turner

Updated:  5/16/24
​Original Article Date:  3/1/19

McFee's Wodshop is the creation of Bryan and Carol McFee in Crane Hill, AL. They are both wood turners.  Carol is a "spindle" turner.  She makes bud vases, handles for bottle openers, ice cream scoops, pizza cutters, back scratchers, and similar items. The vases are all sizes, and we recently did a giveaway for a matched pair that were hard to let go.  They were small, dainty and so beautifully detailed.  We fell in love.  Bryan primarily turns bowls.  GORGEOUS bowls with veins of surprising colors in the wood grain, each one unique and precariously turned and polished to perfection.  He also makes coffee tables and end tables.  He takes special orders if it is something that he feels he can "do justice to."

They use only local hardwoods that they harvest themselves. Most of the trees that they use are dead, dying, or already on the ground. Occasionally they will remove a tree when asked to.  As the trees die, decay sets in.  In wood turner parlance this is called spalting.  It creates the beautiful colors and lines that are so prominent in their work. Bryan jokes "We throw the wood out in the front yard until it starts to grow mushrooms, then we know that the wood is ready!" This does sometimes create problems if the decay goes too far.  Then it gets "punky". This means that it is too rotten to work with.  It is always a fine line between "just right" and "too far gone."  

​They love for people to drop by and visit them in their shop.  In true southern fashion, they have a lot of extra chairs for company.  They are a beautiful couple, you will love every second of time you get with them.  Check them out on Facebook today:  @McFees Woodshop and you may contact Bryan by email:  [email protected] or phone:  205-541-0658.