Virginia Beach city officials want the Something in the Water organizers to announce the lineup and ticket sales for the 2025 event by the end of the year.
The city adopted a resolution Tuesday to include certain conditions in the sponsorship agreement after festival organizers canceled the 2024 festival with less than a month’s notice.
The festival has to collaborate more with city staff and festival liaisons. It also has to announce the lineup and ticket sales before Dec. 31.
The city manager will also include liquidated damages in the agreement — a predetermined amount of money the festival would pay the city if it breaches the contract. And the city can find something to take the festival’s place if expectations and deadlines are not met.
The resolution comes a week after a festival organizer gave a presentation to the council, saying new dates for the rescheduled 2025 fest would be presented to the council by Saturday and tickets would go on sale by the end of the year.
Something in the Water was due to take place Oct. 12-13, but festival organizers canceled it less than a month beforehand, a few hours after ticket sales opened up.
Something in the Water’s new rules are unique. The city council convened a festival task force earlier this year to provide recommendations on how the city handles big events.
In May, the task force recommended holding festival producers accountable for spending of city funds. The city has not voted to adopt any of the task force’s recommendations.
A rescheduled Something in the Water will likely take place in April 2025.
If festival organizers stick to the new schedule for announcing the lineup, it would be a record for releasing the information ahead of time.
In 2023, the long-awaited lineup wasn’t released until a little over a month before the festival dates, with many attendees buying tickets before they knew which acts they would see perform.
The inaugural 2019 festival and the 2022 festival lineups were announced less than two months ahead of time. The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
