Many questions stand in the way of a return of the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival. The festival, which took place over Columbus Day Weekend starting in 1976 and ending in 2019, featured carnival rides, smaller (mostly country music) performers, and tens of thousands of visitors to Niceville’s Mullet Festival Grounds over the space of a weekend. Niceville’s official motto is “Home of the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival,” although no one has held a Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival in nearly half a decade.

Mayor Daniel Henkel wants more information about where and how people will park. He wants more information on how the festival would be policed while not drawing policing resources away from regular duties.

A number of problems stick in the mind of Niceville City Manager David Deitch. “One, we don’t have a contract. Two, we don’t have a lease. And three, there’s no power at the Mullet Festival Site,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.

A couple of terse exchanges, plenty of unanswered questions, and no firm plans came out of the discussion between the company leader that wants to bring the Mullet Festival back to Niceville – and the leadership of the city that would host it.

Matt McKinnon, the leader of what used to be the White Hat Group but is now called the Emerald Coast Entertainment Group, came to the podium with his attorney, Shiraz Hosein, to give an exasperated address to the city council, mayor and city manager of Niceville. In short – he was worried that his inability to get the go-ahead on his project with the city would mean another year’s delay to bring back the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival.

RELATED: Promoters: Mullet Festival to Return in 2025

McKinnon started by telling the council he wanted “transparency and some updates,” from City Manager David Deitch about the status of his request to get approval from the city to host the event on the mullet festival grounds.

“This was supposed to be handled by now,” McKinnon said, “You guys want me to wait another whole year for the military [to approve a lease]? Does it take that long? I’m blind to this, but does it take a whole other year to get this done?”

Deitch, who took the Niceville City Manager job after he retired from Eglin Air Force Base as the general counsel and practicing attorney, told the council and McKinnon that the city’s request for a long-term lease with the Eglin Air Force Base was still being processed by the GSA (General Service Administration), an arm of the federal government. A long-term lease approval “can be a 24-month process,” Deitch told McKinnon, “It started before I came on [at the City of Niceville,] and we’re somewhere in the middle of that process. I don’t know where, but it was approved by one of the boards at Eglin, and it’s GSA now. It’s making its way through the wickets of the Air Force and the Department of Defense.”

As of Tuesday evening – the chances for a 2025 festival looked grim. “We’ve got a lot of questions that are unanswered, and I’m pretty sure the council is not willing to give you the go-ahead,” Mayor Henkel told Hosein and McKinnon.

Niceville City Staff continue to work toward a long-term lease on the mullet festival grounds with the Air Force. The entire site contains the Howard Hill Soccer Complex (Twin Oaks), a frisbee golf course, and the meeting site for the annual Thunderbird Intertribal Powwow.

Without the approval of a lease from the Air Force, the back and forth at the city council is an exercise in futility – as Niceville’s leadership would not have the power to exercise over the grounds.

RELATED: City Reaches Out To Eglin To Talk Long Term Lease On Mullet Festival Grounds

Logistics and Contracts – A Catch 22?

The Niceville Council reiterated their concerns about what they view as logistical stumbling blocks to any future Mullet Festival held on the grounds.  

Mayor Daniel Henkel told McKinnon that the council was waiting for concrete plans from Emerald Coast Entertainment Group (ECEG) for parking and the protection of the fields, which are some of the few places in the city available for athletic use.

McKinnon told the council he could only line up parking with owners of lots throughout town once he got the official word from the council that the Mullet Festival was on. “I mean, who does any of this without a contract?” McKinnon said to the council.

“Nobody, when we don’t have that either,” retorted Deitch.

McKinnon then said that he’d sent a proposed contract at the end of July to former Niceville attorney Dixie Dan Powell, who abruptly retired from his post last month after many years as the lead attorney for the city.

Deitch said he had never seen a contract from either Emerald Coast Entertainment Group or White Hat Productions. McKinnon claimed Hosein, his attorney, sent the contract on July 30, 2024 to Powell.

Deitch then asked the pair why the contract wasn’t sent to him directly. Hosein then told him that he had an ethical duty to send it to the city’s legal representative.

The back and forth broke up after the city’s new attorney, Steven Hall, who had been sitting in front of Hosein at the dais the whole meeting noted that he was the new city attorney and had taken over for Powell the week before.

Who is Matt McKinnon?

McKinnon says he’s promoted events much larger than the mullet festival.

But Councilman Sal Nodjomian noted his concerns with the lack of web presence of the Emerald Coast Entertainment Group and McKinnon himself.

“I’m working on a $4 Million event for the Super Bowl,” McKinnon said to the council when they asked about his credentials, “I’ll get you all of the appropriate companies that I work with, so you’ll know what I’ve done with the NFL, with the NBA, with the Grammy’s, with the Super Bowl, with the Masters.”

A search on Florida’s business registry for the Emerald Coast Entertainment Group turned up an active company registered to Mark Wagner – McKinnon’s business partner who has attended Niceville City Council meetings with McKinnon, Hosein and on his own.

You can see their website here: