VIRGINIA BEACH — A new large-scale music festival being planned for the Oceanfront this fall could double as a tourism marketing tool, according to city officials.
Audacy, the country’s second largest radio company, plans to bring national recording artists in the pop and rock genre to 31st Street for a two-day concert event Oct. 20-21.
As plans for the festival move forward, the company is asking the city for $750,000 in exchange for promotional advertising of Virginia Beach as a travel destination.
Audacy previously partnered with the East Coast Surfing Championships last August to bring The Offspring and Third Eye Blind to the beach.
Numerous festivals held at the Oceanfront in recent years have asked Virginia Beach for money to help produce events. The city approved a $2 million financial sponsorship for Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival this year — the largest financial incentive the city has approved for a festival. The council also OK’d $1.5 million from a tourism investment fund to sponsor this year’s Beach It! country music festival.
In those cases, the amount of city the subsidy was tied to taxes and revenue generated by the festivals — accounting that neither the city nor festival organizers have yet disclosed. The Audacy request is different in that it asks for the money outright.
At a briefing on the event Tuesday, City Manager Patrick Duhaney said the City Council will be getting a report in September on the economic impact of several large Oceanfront festivals held this year.
Mayor Bobby Dyer said this year’s festival calendar has been accomplishing the goal of making the resort area a year-round destination.
“What we’re doing is bringing people to the beach,” Dyer said.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on funding for the festival next Tuesday.
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The word on the street is ….
Pharrell Williams concert was a flop. T- shirts for $800 and bad weather. It was doomed before it began.
The city tried to appease Williams because of a justified shooting, of one of his cousins by giving him unlimited benefits.
If you spend anytime at the beach you would see the crowds are not there.
Virginia Beach is known for its concerts but from long ago. The Peppermint beach club rocked! And the Dome had well know musicians like Grateful dead, Neil Diamond, Beach Boys, Molly Hatchet, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago Little River band the list goes on.
I don’t understand why they have concerts at the oceanfront.
The City of Virginia Beach spent millions on the sports complex and the Veterans amphitheater. These structures are not utilized to their potential. These are same politicians that said these structures are needed to bring in millions for VB tax base, as they increased our taxes.
It seems the city forgot the people that just want to enjoy the beach without hearing the loud bass noise coming from the concerts.
And yes I was on the beach at 6:15 one morning to hear a DJ blasting away on the microphone.
The city of VB is scrambling to find away to make more money for the previous short coming.
It’s inevitable that the real estate taxes will be going up.
Now the impact on the beach is not mentioned. Why? There is heavy equipment moving sand up and down the beach to accommodate these concerts. Structures are built on unsettled sand. Spikes, bolts wiring are all over the beach.
What will happen if one these structures fall during a storm and people are hurt? Who pays for the liabilities? And what are the impacts of diesel fuel spilled on the beach?
I don’t understand the thinking of these politicians. Are they helping the Hotel owners or the citizens that will have pay for their mistakes.
There is a lot going on in VB that the politicians are not speaking about. Does it sound familiar?