Southeast

By Samantha Spector

A great music festival should have a great name, one that conveys the essence of the festival's vibe. In a word, Bonnaroo evokes adventure and organized chaos while All Good says chill out and groove. The Hangout Beach, Music and Arts Festival needs no furthers explanation: Beach. Music. Art.

The Hangout gets its name from the historic bar on the beach at the festival site along the so-called Redneck Riviera in Gulf Shores AL. The festival is a first-time event in 2010, but its epic lineup has generated an huge level of buzz among fans throughout the region.

The line-up caters to tastes across the spectrum—from country (Zac Brown Band) to hip-hop (The Roots, John Legend), from electronica (Girl Talk) to good ol' rock 'n' roll (The Black Crowes, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, The Whigs); and everything in between.

There was concern about the impact of the Gulf oil spill, but the site has not been affected and the show will go on. Proceeds from the festival will be donated to the environmental cleanup. And now we are counting down the hours until the clock clicks from "work" to "fun."

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Frequent festival-goers, start your engines.

In years past, we have always considered the fourth weekend in April as the unofficial kickoff of the Spring music festival season, considering the number of important festivals that took place on those dates. Now, with Coachella sticking to its week-earlier schedule and the growing importance of other third-weekend festivals, it seems safe to say that the season kicks off today.

True, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the traditional harbinger of Springtime music, stays on its familiar two-week schedule of the fourth weekend in April and first weekend in May. But Coachella has the music world buzzing this week and it is joined by a number of other major fests, including Wanee, Old Settler's, Country Thunder, and Houston International.

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