A toast will be raised during Meeting of the Minds

A toast will be raised during Meeting of the Minds
After eight years in New Orleans and 22 years in Key West, Parrot Heads in Paradise will bring its Meeting of the Minds celebration of all trop rock to Gulf Shores. With events scheduled from Oct. 23-28, the convention for Jimmy Buffett fans the world over will give patrons amble opportunity to raise a glass to the Gulf Coast native who all but invented the trop rock genre.
“We just had a meeting about it today, and we decided to do something as a group on Wednesday (Oct. 25) at The Hangout,’’ MOTM co-chair Pete Ferralli said on his way home from a Parrot Head event at the Surf Ballroom (venue for Buddy Holly’s last concert) in Clear Lake, Iowa.
“We have not finalized everything, but our president and some other people will say a few words and then we will all come together and raise a toast,’’ he added. “All of us are taking this pretty hard. We knew he was sick, but we didn’t realize how bad it was. Please tell all the Jimmy Buffett fans from town to come down and join us.’’
Ferralli said 2100 Parrot Heads have already signed up for MOTM, and he expects the convention to come close to its capacity of 2500 by the close of registration. General registration is $172.22 and VIP is $472.2.
The MOTM participants will party at The Hangout and the Hangout Group’s other Gulf Shores restaurants as well as The Gulf and Zeke’s Landing, two other Hangout associated restaurants in Orange Beach. Concerts are also scheduled at LuLu’s at Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores and the Flora-Bama on Perdido Key.
All of the MOTM events, with the exception of those at The Hangout from Oct. 26-28, are open to non-registered guests.Those events will include a mini-golf tourney at Shrimpy’s and various auctions and raffles.
“We have donated over $62 million to charity since we started MOTM,’’ said Ferralli, who has attended 20 of the first 30 conventions, including the first one in 1992 in the French Quarter.
. “Our motto is party with a purpose. and we will be doing all kinds of stuff to raise money for the city’s charities while we are there. We also arranged for bloodmobiles to be there for three days. We will have auction baskets, raffles, a silent auction. We are working with Bras Across The Causeway Group on an event. We will do a shoe and toy collection. Just about everything we do will raise funds for the city’s charities.’’
For more MOTM info, visit motm.rocks.