One Love – One Ocean: Buffet Plays Free 2010 Gulf Shores Public Beach Concert
One Love – One Ocean: Buffet Plays Free 2010 Gulf Shores Public Beach Concert
Billed as CMT Presents Jimmy Buffett & Friends Live From the Gulf Coast, Buffett & a Coral Reefer Band that included fellow Mobilian Will Kimbrough on guitar played a free concert for 35,000 fans at Gulf Shores Public Beach on July 11, 2010. The concert was funded by BP while oil still spewed from its Deep Water Horizon oil drilling rig about 100 miles east in the same Gulf of Mexico waters that served as a backdrop for the concert. The well was not capped until Sept. 19. “There are always welcome breaks in every storm,” Buffett said. “But a few hours of fun, void of the constant reminders of the situation, is a good thing, and that is basically what I do.” Tickets to the concert were distributed through Ticketmaster and given to anyone willing to rent a hotel or condo on Pleasure Island at the time. But certainly, a majority of those with their feet in the sand were locals. Buffett changed the lyrics to “It’s all BP’s fault’’ during Margaritaville. The concert originally was scheduled for July 1 but had to be postponed because of heavy surf from Hurricane Alex. “Thank you all for coming from wherever you came to help support our good friends, neighbors – and some of my family down here, as well,” Buffett told the crowd after opening the show with “The Pascagoula Run,” in deference to his birthplace.