ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A country concert planned in St. Pete Beach is raising concerns from environmentalists.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Country Thunder Florida 2026 is planned for May at Tradewinds Resort
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Environmentalists fear the concert will disrupt nesting seasons for turtles and skimmers
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In addition to a protest Saturday morning, an advocacy group launched an online petition<\/p>\n
Country Thunder Florida 2026 is scheduled to take place at Tradewinds Resort in May, but local protesters have raised concerns that the concert may disrupt the nesting season of turtles and skimmers.<\/p>\n
The concert is from May 8 through 10, but demonstrators said the setup would start weeks before and cause major problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtect our wildlife,\u201d St. Pete Beach resident Cindy Perry said. \u201cThis is one of the precious things that we have here on St. Pete Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coastal Wildlife Advocacy Group Founder Lisa Reich said if Country Thunder Florida 2026 continues as planned, there will be major consequences for both species.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a time where the nesting females come up, and we also start getting a black skimmer colony,\u201d she said. \u201cThe impact to their habitat, having this event at this time, is going to deter any nesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement from Tradewinds Resort, they said in part:<\/p>\n
\u201cA survey conducted on March 30, 2026, found no nests on the property. Further precautions include the nightly removal of temporary walkways and the careful placement of fencing to ensure unobstructed passage of sea turtles along the shoreline.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Reich said the steps they\u2019re taking are not enough. They want the date of the concert moved or a venue change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we allow this to happen, it\u2019s going to send the message that we don\u2019t care, and we do,\u201d she said. \u201cSo that\u2019s why we\u2019re doing this, to say we care.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the city of St. Pete Beach said in a statement to Spectrum News that \u201cno permits have been issued by the DEP or by the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added that they\u2019re still looking at environmental factors as well as traffic, public safety and more.<\/p>\n
In addition to Saturday morning\u2019s protest, the group launched an online petition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A country concert planned in St. Pete Beach is raising concerns from environmentalists. What…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1563,4628,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-219071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-matt-lackritz","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pinellas-county","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news","18":"tag-tampa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219071","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=219071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}