For 52 years, the Kentuck Arts Center has held its annual festival North of the Black Warrior River in Northport’s Kentuck Park. Now, it’s coming to Tuscaloosa, but not without a series of controversies.
After a post from two Barstool-Sports-affiliated Instagram accounts for University of Alabama students urged individuals to contact the Tuscaloosa City Council, hundreds of emails flooded councilors’ inboxes before the July 25 council meeting urging them not to close the city’s bars at midnight.
One bar owner on The Strip in Tuscaloosa told 1819 News last week that his bar stands to lose as much as 35% of his profit if city officials require bars to stop selling alcohol earlier.
Since a shooting on The Strip in Tuscaloosa that resulted in the death of a 23-year-old female and the arrest of a University of Alabama basketball player in January landed the city in the national press, Tuscaloosa City Council members and law enforcement have been discussing how to make the city’s bar scene safer.
In June, the Tuscaloosa City Council voted 5-2 to institute a moratorium on bars within the city limits, citing police shortages and concerns about calls from the Strip, the nightlife district just down the street from the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.