Kickoff Jam canceled + people are really confused

A late-summer country music festival in Panama City Beach, Florida, has been canceled and local officials are as confused as fans. Kickoff Jam was canceled with a message that barely explains what happened.

• Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks and Alabama were scheduled to headline the three-day Kickoff Jam from August 30 to September 1.
• TuneIn.com – where Brooks programs a range of stations including the Big 615 – was the official media partner for the event.
• Kickoff Jam was presented in early June by producers of Gulf Coast Jam, a popular three-day festival in PCB.

Why was Kickoff Jam cancelled?

Officially, Kickoff Jam was canceled because organizers felt the weekend after Memorial Day was a better weekend for a festival. That’s when Gulf Coast Jam is held.

Related: Your country music festival guide for 2024

The insinuation is that late August isn’t a great weekend for a country festival in North Florida, but press releases touted that 70 percent of the first general admission tickets would be sold within minutes of going on sale.

Packages for the festival started at $289. The mayor of Panama City Beach wondered if slow ticket sales were the problem.

“We need the off-season events, and I don’t know what happened with this event,” Mayor Stuart Tettemer told WJHG-TV in Panama City Beach.

Tettemer was also angry that organizers booked a popular park and then canceled it, leaving a valuable piece of real estate unrented for an entire weekend. Fans’ opinions of the country are unknown as comments have been disabled on all Kickoff Jam social media accounts.

NeedtoBreathe, Randy Houser and Jamey Johnson provided direct support for the Kickoff Jam headliners. There were six or seven artists featured each day and the festival would be hosted by Storme Warren, host of the Big 615 on TuneIn.

Refunds will be issued and fans will be directed to the official website for more information. Once there, one can only access the same press release sent to social media.

Billy Dukes is senior editor and executive producer of video content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the secret history of country music. Plus, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows via the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he has written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced more than 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.