MOBILE, Ala. — The Grounds, the west Mobile event venue that is home to the Greater Gulf State Fair, has stopped booking several kinds of events, including hard rock, hip-hop and rap shows and events involving fireworks, a move its leader says is dictated by exclusions in the nonprofit’s newly renewed insurance policy.
The decision has drawn criticism on social media, where some people have questioned whether the restrictions on hip-hop and rap events are about more than insurance. Josh Woods, executive director of The Grounds and the Greater Gulf State Fair, said race played no part in it.
“Every business has insurance. Our nonprofit organization has insurance as well, so part of that, part of hosting events and it being a place where folks can gather, we have to go by what our insurance is allowing,” Woods said.
The change at a glance
- Venue: The Grounds, 1035 Cody Road North, Mobile, home of the Greater Gulf State Fair
- What changed: The venue’s renewed insurance policy came with exclusions covering certain event types
- Events not being booked: Hard rock music, events with fireworks, and some hip-hop and rap events, according to Woods
- Alternative considered: Requiring organizers of those events to carry higher insurance coverage
- Current decision: Not booking those event types across the board, “at least not right now”
What the insurance exclusions cover
Woods said the nonprofit recently renewed its insurance, and that the renewal came with exclusions that limit the kinds of events it can host.
“Hard rock music, obviously things with fireworks, some hip-hop style events, rap events, that’s part of the exclusions in our contract,” he said. “While we could make folks to take out higher insurance policies, at this time we’ve just across the board said we’re just not going to host those event types. At least not right now.”
In other words, The Grounds could, in theory, require organizers of excluded events to purchase additional coverage on their own. For now, the venue has chosen not to take that route and is simply declining to book those events.
Woods: ‘This is a business decision’
Much of the online reaction has focused on the inclusion of hip-hop and rap on the list, with some commenters asking whether the policy unfairly targets Black artists and audiences. Woods rejected that idea and pointed to the range of events the venue hosts over the course of a year.
“It has nothing to do with an organization in our facility or an individual that wants to rent our facility. At the end of the day, if you look across our whole portfolio of events throughout the year, we host anything. From obviously, the fair that we produce ourselves, our largest event,” he said.
He cited an event scheduled for this weekend as an example.
“This weekend, I’m very proud, our first-ever, the Black Rodeo Association is hosting a large event, a rodeo this Saturday. So, this has nothing to do with any type of organization or us being selective. At the end of the day, this is a business decision just because of our business insurance and the exclusions on our policy,” Woods said.
The Mobile Black Rodeo is listed on the venue’s calendar for Saturday, Sept. 26.
How the insurer decided
Woods said he could not explain exactly how the insurance company arrived at the list of excluded event types. He said the venue has had an incident at an event in the past, and he believes that may have factored into the insurer’s assessment of risk.
“At this time, it’s probably some complex insurance formula that they put in a computer and spit out what our exclusions are, but there has been a history obviously of an event in the past where an incident did occur so I guess with that and some complex formula is how we get our exclusions,” he said.
Woods did not specify which incident he was referring to. The venue has seen security incidents in recent years. In June, two men suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds in a shooting outside The Grounds shortly after midnight following a high school reunion. Mobile police said at the time they believed one of the men was the intended target and that the shooting was not random; a 22-year-old Mobile man was later arrested and charged with first-degree assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The Grounds said then that it was cooperating fully with law enforcement.
In November 2023, the Greater Gulf State Fair closed early one Saturday night after reports of a disturbance on the midway set off a crowd surge. Some attendees said they heard gunshots, but Mobile police said they found no evidence that shots were fired and reported no injuries. The fair afterward began requiring anyone under 18 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian after 6 p.m.
It is not known whether either of those events played any role in the insurer’s decisions, and Woods has not said.
How event insurance exclusions work
Venues that rent their space to outside groups typically carry general liability insurance to cover claims such as injuries to guests or damage to property. Like most insurance contracts, those policies can include exclusions — categories of activity that the insurer will not cover. Insurers set exclusions and prices based on how likely they believe claims to be and how costly those claims might be.
Certain activities have long been treated by insurers as higher risk. Fireworks and pyrotechnics, for example, commonly require specialized coverage, and large concerts in general are often treated differently than trade shows or banquets because of crowd size, alcohol service and the potential for injuries. When a venue’s own policy excludes a category of event, the choices generally come down to finding other coverage, requiring the event’s organizer to buy a separate special-event liability policy, or not hosting the event at all.
Many venues already require renters to show proof of their own insurance and to name the venue as an additional insured. Woods said The Grounds could go that route for the excluded events by requiring higher coverage, but has decided against it for the time being.
A long history in west Mobile
The Grounds is one of the largest event sites on the Gulf Coast. The Greater Gulf State Fair began in 1955 as a fundraiser organized by members of the Mobile Junior Chamber of Commerce, now the Mobile Jaycees. The first fair, held on Blakeley Island, drew about 60,000 people, and a young Elvis Presley performed during the fair’s early years. The fair later moved to Ladd Stadium and Hartwell Field before settling on its own property in west Mobile in the mid-1970s.
The fair organization bought its original 90-acre site at Cody Road and Zeigler Boulevard with fair revenue. The property was renamed The Grounds in 2014, and a 70-acre expansion in 2017 brought it to about 160 acres. The site includes a permanent grandstand and more than 2 acres of indoor space, including ballrooms and the Hocklander multipurpose building.
Today the venue bills itself as a year-round entertainment, convention and commercial facility that draws more than a million visitors annually. Its calendar includes expos, banquets, trade shows, rodeos, concerts and community celebrations. This weekend alone, the schedule lists an exotic pet expo alongside the rodeo.
The fair is still on
The venue’s largest event of the year is the Greater Gulf State Fair itself, which is produced by the organization rather than an outside renter. The 10-day fair routinely attracts more than 100,000 people, and the 2026 edition is scheduled for Oct. 30 through Nov. 8.
Woods has not indicated that the insurance exclusions will affect the fair.
What comes next
Woods said the restrictions remain in place for now, but that The Grounds is continuing to look for ways to bring a variety of events to the community. He left the door open to revisiting the policy — including the option of requiring organizers of excluded event types to carry higher insurance — but said that for the moment the venue has decided across the board not to book them.
Promoters and organizations with questions about booking The Grounds can contact the venue at 251-344-4573.