Another deadline passed for getting the 2025 Something in the Water festival ready and Virginia Beach’s city council will consider its response next week.
According to a city spokesperson, festival organizers asked the city for an extension on their Dec. 31 deadline to open ticket sales and release the artist lineup for the April event.
It’s not clear how long of an extension organizers requested but they will likely have until mid-January to get back on track before the city cancels the festival.
“The ultimate goal is to get to a win-win situation,” Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer told WHRO. Organizers are having trouble putting together a lineup, he said, but the city is at a decision point.
“These events take a lot of preparation, including by the city, especially in the realm of public safety,” he said.
At its first meeting of the year on Tuesday, the council will vote on a five-day window for organizers to meet their end of the sponsorship agreement.
Organizers would have five days from receiving notice from the city to “cure the breach” — meaning open ticket sales and provide the city with a list of artists performing — before the city would cancel the agreement, seek a refund of the advance payment and plan something else for April 26 and 27.
According to the agreement, the city promised to pay a $500,000 advance in installments. It already paid $100,000 and was due to pay another $200,000 upon receiving a lineup and ticket sales opening.
The event is set to take place over what used to be called College Beach Weekend at the Oceanfront, the last weekend of April that attracts students on spring break. Dyer said the city needs to have something planned for the weekend that’s “safe” and “good entertainment.”
After festival organizers cancelled the event scheduled for October 2024 when it wasn’t ready in time and punted it to April instead, organizers promised the city to meet deadlines this time around.
In November, Dyer threatened to pull the plug on the festival when organizers missed a Nov. 1 due date for a signed sponsorship agreement. Festival organizers met Dyer’s new deadline and delivered a sponsorship agreement to the city that month.
Although he was frustrated then, Dyer is now eager to recapture the magic of the first Something in the Water in 2018.
“It was magic. There was positivity in the air. There was a sense of community, and that’s the feeling I want to get back,” he said.
