VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — In a year with multiple first-time festivals already taking place at the Oceanfront, the city of Virginia Beach will now have another coming this fall, but not where organizers had hoped.
Audacy Virginia, a division of the large entertainment giant that owns multiple radio stations in Hampton Roads, approached the city about putting on a two-day festival, Oct. 20 and 21, with national recording artists as headliners.
The artists will be from the pop and rock genres, according to a letter sent to City Council by City Manager Patrick Duhaney, and would perform at a stage set up on 31st Street that faces south.
The festival is asking the city for $750,000 from tourism taxes to help buy advertising. Audacy will put in $1.5 million of its own funds for marketing. Council approved it Tuesday, 7-4, but it will have to be north of 15th Street.
“The city of Virginia Beach has been successfully creating opportunities for large festivals and events that would bring tens of thousands of visitors to the city,” Duhaney said. “This media buy will be to promote Virginia Beach as a top travel and tourist destination.”
The festival, of which the name hasn’t yet been revealed, will be the third of a larger scale to debut on the beach this year.
In early June, the Jackalope action sports festival turned the 31st Street beach into a skatepark. Later that same month, country music returned to the sand with Beach It!
In April, Something in the Water returned to the Oceanfront after a multi-year hiatus.
This isn’t the first time Audacy has provided entertainment on the beach. Last year, they brought in Third Eye Blind and The Offspring as part of the 60th Coastal Edge East Coast Surfing Championships.