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ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — The Audubon Society has announced it will withdraw its annual conference from the Tradewinds in October if Country Thunder proceeds during the crucial nesting period for seabirds and sea turtles. As of now, the concert lacks necessary approvals at both state and local levels.
Many ticket holders express a mix of excitement and nervousness about the upcoming event.
“Any positive attention for St. Pete Beach is fantastic, especially with a concert of this magnitude,” said Stephen Cannon. “It draws people in and demonstrates that St. Pete is resilient and poised for an amazing comeback.”
Attendees are eager to showcase the charm of St. Pete Beach while enjoying the company of family and friends during the event. However, the absence of official permits is causing some concern.
“It’s something to think about, but I’ll address it if necessary,” Cannon remarked. “If issues arise, I’ll handle them with my credit card company.”
However, one event may be costing the Tradewinds another.
“We’ve just had to make the very difficult decision of drawing that line in the sand and saying, you know, if the event is not moved back off of the beach by today, we’re unfortunately going to have to cancel our event,” Julie Wraithmell, President of Audubon Florida, said.
The Audubon Society, Florida’s oldest conservation organization, booked its conference at the Tradewinds last year for around 300 people.
As the Country Thunder Music Festival seems to carry on as planned, they say the venue could no longer be suited for them because it puts the birds they seek to protect at risk.
“We don’t know how big the impacts are going to be because there’s no comparison. No situation is like this where you have a black skimmer colony, and you have any kind of event of this size,” said Dr. Beth Forys, Avian Expert and President of the St. Petersburg Audubon Society.
We’ve reached out to the Tradewinds and Country Thunder once more, they haven’t gotten back to us.
8 On Your Side obtained a copy of the Tradewinds special event permit application for the city of St. Pete Beach, it’s dated for November of 2025.
The document reads, “Country Thunder has acts on standby until the permitting process is completed.”
But at the city commission meeting on March 24, Kim Blevins, executive director for Country Thunder, said, “We don’t want to impede in any wildlife, we don’t want to cause any issues, but at this point, with our talent booked, it’s difficult to get out of those dates.”