News
Openings, closures, festival dates and beach notices for Gulf Shores. Every item is dated, says where the facts came from, and points back at the pages that explain the practical side.
Front page
Four days of food stalls, craft booths and live stages at the foot of Highway 59, free to walk into, and by some distance the busiest weekend of the Alabama autumn.
October 8 – October 11
The flat day rate is gone. Since the first of July, the city charges by the hour at its public beach parking areas, which changes the arithmetic of a long beach day.
Visitors read the double red flag as strong advice. Inside both city limits on the Alabama coast it closes the water, and you can find out today's status before you leave the condo.
Hurricane Sally removed about two hundred feet of the longest pier on the Gulf, months after it had been renovated. The rebuild took years and the pier reopened in August 2024.
Archive
Chairs, tents, coolers and toys all come off the beach within an hour of sunset in both cities. The reason is not neatness, and the rule has teeth.
Two boats, one crossing, and a service that halts in a stiff wind. The ferry is one of the best half-days on the Alabama coast and the one most often ruined by not checking first.
For years the fast way onto the island cost money at a bridge. The state bought the crossing and removed the toll in May 2024, and a lot of travel advice still has not caught up.
The beach festival that reshapes Gulf Shores every May did not happen in 2026. Neither did the event that replaced it in 2025. The city has been working towards a return in 2027.