Editorial: Virginia Beach challenged to host festivals while keeping city beaches open

The Virginia Beach Oceanfront bustles with activity most summers as the mercury rises and people flock to the beaches. This year, however, the city has also seen an uptick in large-scale events such as music festivals and other events that draw thousands to the resort area.

That’s fantastic for Virginia Beach, of course. These attractions boost local businesses, including hotels and restaurants, and generate considerable revenue for both the city and the region.

But it’s not ideal for year-round Virginia Beach residents, who are concerned that the city’s emphasis on large-scale events means less access to regular beach-goers. It’s a legitimate concern and one the city will need to deftly manage.

When Beach native Pharrell Williams returned his Something in the Water festival to the Oceanfront, it was cause for celebration. The previous iteration in 2019 generated $1.2 million for Virginia Beach and $24 million in revenue for the region, according to an after-event summary prepared for the city by economists at Old Dominion University.

Williams and his team expanded SITW this year, with performers appearing on two stages rather than one, and more of everything — dance, art, food, seminars and so on — in the festival area.

Ultimately that required cordoning off 14 blocks of the beach and boardwalk to visitors for the festival and closing a smaller area for weeks to set up and tear down the stages and other structures needed for the production.

The country-music focused Beach It! festival followed two months later, and it prompted similar disruptions at the Oceanfront. Beach It! only had one stage, but like SITW utilized the public parking lot next to the Boardwalk at Second Street in the Rudee Loop as a staging area. Public access was restricted beginning two weeks before the first notes were played.

Virginia Beach has hosted other major events this year as well, including the Jackalope Fest in early June spotlighting action sports, and will have more throughout the summer, such as the annual Neptune Festival in late September.

Again, a crowded festival calendar is a good thing for Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads. Economic activity at the Oceanfront benefits the whole city and it’s exciting to have a variety of entertainment options that can attract visitors to the region.

According to reporting by The Pilot’s Stacy Parker, aspects of that don’t sit well with full-time residents who, admittedly, are asked to accept a good bit of inconvenience when these events take place. Traffic can be a nightmare, for one, and there are always complaints about noise and trash from visitors.

However, their primary concern is access to the beach. They object to having so many popular areas restricted for so long, especially before and after events, and would like to see officials strike a better balance between residents’ expectations and the city’s aspirations to load the calendar with revenue-driving events.

The City Council appears open to discussing that issue, with Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson telling Parker that could be a topic to explore at the council’s August retreat. She also expressed interest in looking at the city’s return on investment with festival sponsorships after Virginia Beach dramatically increased the city’s share of costs for several events this year.

That shouldn’t be done hastily, and other members smartly said that discussion should follow data — that the council should see the numbers from this year’s SITW and other festivals before deciding how to proceed.

They would also do well to hear these concerns from the public, either through a survey or public forum, that would allow officials to get a clear sense of residents’ primary concerns and perhaps even solutions for how to address them.

Finding a balance between these two interests — city residents seeking beach access and popular events that require restricting that access — is a perpetual challenge, but through public engagement and thoughtful consideration, there is hope this council can chart a course that can reasonably satisfy both.