On Saturday, protesters gathered outside the Tradewinds Resort, urging city leaders to deny permits for the upcoming music festival, scheduled to begin May 8.<\/p>\n
ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A three-day country music festival planned for St. Pete Beach is drawing pushback from residents who say the timing puts endangered wildlife at risk.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, protesters gathered outside the Tradewinds Resort, urging city leaders to deny permits for the upcoming Country Thunder music festival, scheduled to begin May 8. Organizers expect thousands of people to attend the beachside event over three days.<\/p>\n
Residents say the festival coincides with sea turtle nesting season and could threaten both turtles and shorebirds that rely on dark, quiet beaches to survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very concerning. They hold no permits. They did not do their due diligence,\u201d said Heidi Perna, one of several residents who took part in the protest. \u201cIt\u2019s a catastrophe waiting to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sea turtle nesting season typically runs from May through October. Conservation advocates say bright lights, large crowds and structures left on the sand can disorient nesting turtles and hatchlings, causing them to move away from the water instead of toward it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows you get fined up and down the beach for lights,\u201d Perna said. \u201cAnd yet, you\u2019re going to have a stage and people around with so many bright lights to disorient the turtles. It\u2019s just ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others pointed to the scale of the festival, saying it would be one of the largest events ever held on St. Pete Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so many people,\u201d said Claudine Reece, another protester. \u201cIt\u2019s more than two times any other event that\u2019s ever happened here on St. Pete Beach, and the timing puts our black skimmers and our sea turtles in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents say the concerns are heightened after recent hurricanes damaged protective dunes along the beach \u2014 dunes that help shield nesting areas from lights and foot traffic.<\/p>\n
Jody Powell, who says she has lived on St. Pete Beach for decades, worries about the long-term impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lighting confuses these little tiny baby turtles,\u201d Powell said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to get back to the ocean, and they don\u2019t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many protesters emphasized they are not opposed to hosting concerts or supporting tourism. Instead, they are asking festival organizers and the city to consider moving the event off the beach or shifting it to another time of year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d really love to see them change the date,\u201d Reece said. \u201cI\u2019d love to see the business come, but do it when it\u2019s not nesting season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria Erickson echoed those concerns, saying sea turtles need beaches that are \u201cclean, dark and flat\u201d in order to nest successfully.<\/p>\n
In a statement to 10 Tampa Bay News, a spokesperson for the Tradewinds Resort said the festival plans to include turtle monitoring, limited lighting and offsite parking to reduce potential impacts on wildlife.<\/p>\n
However, some residents argue the event has not yet received final approval from the city and should not be hosted on the sand at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t even have the required permits by the city,\u201d Erickson said.<\/p>\n
The final decision now rests with the St. Pete Beach city manager, who must determine whether the festival can move forward as planned.<\/p>\n
Country Thunder\u2019s lineup includes major artists such as Kane Brown, Zach Top and Shaboozey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, protesters gathered outside the Tradewinds Resort, urging city leaders to deny permits for the upcoming music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-218939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}