County Opts To Not Renew Business License For Birmingham-Based Event Group

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa County Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to not renew the countywide business license for a Birmingham-based event group following a large-scale incident last year on Sanders Ferry Road.

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County Administrator Byron Waid presented the measure to the commission and there were no representatives from CAVÉ Cartel present to speak on behalf of the request to renew the business license.

CAVÉ Cartel markets itself on social media as an organizer of large-scale parties across the Southeast in cities like Birmingham, Atlanta and Tallahassee, Florida.

"I think we all recall what we dealt with last year with the arrests, the guns and the drugs and all the issues with traffic," Probate Judge and Commission Chair Rob Robertson said Wednesday, referring to a large event hosted byCAVÉ Cartel that had to be broken up by police. "I may not get a vote, but I think that this is something that definitely needs to be strongly considered by the commission."

Apart from issues with the county, the event group also recently ran afoul of the City of Tuscaloosa after similar events were marketed in the city.

The Tuscaloosa Police Department said in April 2024, ahead of A-Day weekend, that the promoters were not licensed to do business in Tuscaloosa and did not have permission to hold events on the properties where the events were advertised.

The CAVÉ Cartel flatly denied this at the time and said that while it did have an event planned in April 2024, the decision was made to cancel it after discussing the matter with Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley.

District 4 Commissioner Reginald Murray also said Wednesday that he had been in touch with law enforcement about issues with the event group and pointed out that the CAVÉ Cartel had tried to "work around" police by having outside contractors come in to provide security for its events.

"I believe the best we can do is to go ahead and vote to not renew so that we can get their attention and let people know that this is a county where we've got to maintain order," he said.

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