New dates for Something in the Water will be proposed within two weeks, a festival organizer told Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday.
The festival, which was due to take place this coming weekend, was scrapped the day tickets went on sale in September with little to no warning to city staff or fans preparing to go to the shows.
Festival creator Pharrell Williams announced it would be postponed until April 2025 and organizer Robby Wells told City Council the new dates would be presented to the city by Oct. 19.
Wells also projects tickets will go on sale by the end of the year.
Wells did not give any reason for this year’s cancellation. Williams wrote in an Instagram post, “It just isn’t ready yet.” The festival has taken place three times: twice in Virginia Beach (2019, 2023) and once in Washington, D.C. (2022).
Councilmember David “Hutch” Hutcheson cited the work the city does to prepare for the festival and commented on Wells’ new schedule.
“Those dates need to be pretty well adhered to so that we can do our side appropriately,” he said.
In a PowerPoint presentation, Wells highlighted Something in the Water’s positive impact, noting that it goes beyond a music event. The festival, started by Virginia Beach-native Williams, is “about elevating the trajectory of the city that he loves dearly,” Wells said.
He said the festival is in its “awkward teenage years” but hoped it would turn into an event of similar stature and longevity as the 51-year-old Virginia Beach Neptune Festival. Council members, including festival liaisons Jennifer Rouse and Amelia Ross-Hammond, were overall receptive to the new plans, with a few critiques of this year’s cancellation.
Councilmember Joash Schulman listed the economic and planning impacts the cancellation created — for hotels that turned away other bookings to hold space for festival-goers and public safety personnel who planned to work the weekend, for example.
Councilmember Sabrina Wooten said she was dismayed for the people who stood in line for tickets, especially young people and college students who saved money to go. She hoped the festival would “build up confidence, build up from that disappointment for them.”
“It seemed like it really went deep for some folks,” she said.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
