VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Three years in the past right this moment, festivalgoers packed the Virginia Seaside Oceanfront for One thing within the Water. 

George Frank, proprietor of Sunnyside Café & Restaurant on the Virginia Seaside Oceanfront, mentioned enterprise boomed the weekend of April 26, 2019.  

“It brings lots of enterprise to the Oceanfront, and we had been anticipating much more,” mentioned Frank. 

In 2019, leaders with Virginia Seaside mentioned the pageant had a $21 million financial influence on the town. The pageant bought out of 25,000 tickets in 21 minutes, and lodge occupancy was at 90%. 

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In response to Frank, the earnings generated by One thing within the Water helped help his enterprise for a number of weeks after the occasion. The pageant leaving is a tricky capsule to swallow. 

“Hopefully, perhaps, within the subsequent few years, it’s going to come again,” Frank mentioned. 

Frank and others assumed the pageant can be the delight and pleasure of Virginia Seaside for years to come back.

However earlier this week, music icon and Hampton Roads native Pharrell Williams introduced the occasion will happen on the Nationwide Mall in Washington D.C. on Juneteenth weekend. 

Some Virginia Seaside leaders disagree over the place to put blame for the lack of One thing within the Water.

“It’s an absolute failure and it’s an absence of management,” mentioned Virginia Seaside Metropolis Councilman Aaron Rouse. 

Final fall, Williams indicated he didn’t need to convey the pageant again to Virginia Seaside, citing “poisonous power” and the town’s response to the demise of his cousin, Donovon Lynch, by a metropolis police officer.

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“I want the identical power I’ve felt from Virginia Seaside management upon shedding the pageant would have been equally channeled following the lack of my relative’s life,” Pharrell wrote in his letter final yr. 

Lynch was shot and killed by a police officer on March 26, 2021, on the Oceanfront. 

Rouse mentioned he’s glad the pageant will proceed not too far-off, however he mentioned the town’s failure goes past the management’s response to Lynch’s demise. 

Rouse, who served because the pageant liaison in 2019, claims metropolis leaders did not solidify a very good working relationship with Williams. 

“When the town requested for Pharrell’s assist, he confirmed up in a serious approach, and that isn’t one thing you simply neglect,” Rouse mentioned Wednesday. “You may have a pageant that not solely was culturally helpful, but it surely additionally introduced in lots of {dollars}. So to not solidify that, bewilders me.” 

Mayor Bobby Dyers disagrees. 

“It was not, by any account, the fault of the town,” mentioned Dyer. “It was only a set of unlucky, unexpected circumstances.”

Dyer instructed 13NewsNow he’s dissatisfied within the loss and claims Virginia Seaside leaders, within the final yr, labored to make the neighborhood safer and extra inclusive, although he mentioned there’s nonetheless work to be executed. He cited the lately assembled Mayor’s Taskforce to discover inclusion, fairness and variety in Hampton Roads communities.

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He mentioned the town is beginning to regain occasions misplaced through the COVID-19 pandemic, citing Yuengling Shamrock Marathon Weekend, which drew greater than 20,000 members in March. 

Dyer mentioned he is “assured” that with time and dialog, Virginia Seaside will regain One thing within the Water too.  

“I believe there are some misunderstandings on the market, that when Pharrell and I do sit down, and I’ll proceed to increase the olive department, that we are able to iron issues out,” Dyer mentioned. 

Dyer mentioned he’s nonetheless hoping to have a gathering with Pharrell sooner or later.

When requested what he thinks it’s going to take to convey the pageant again to Virginia Seaside, Rouse mentioned, “There’s an election arising in November.”  

‘Poisonous power’ | Pharrell letter casts doubt on One thing within the Water 2022

Pharrell ended his letter to the town in 2021 with the next assertion: 

“Till the gatekeepers and the powers-that-be contemplate the residents and the buyer base, and now not view the thought of human rights for all as a controversial thought… I haven’t got any issues with the town, however I understand that metropolis hasn’t valued my proposed options, both.”

“We’re transferring in the proper path, and we simply need the chance to elucidate to Pharrell what we’ve been doing,” Dyer mentioned Wednesday. 

In the meantime, pre-sale began Wednesday for earlier pageant attendees. On Friday, there’s one other pre-sale for individuals who stay in Virginia. 

Everybody should buy passes beginning Saturday, April 30.