The Virginia Beach City Council approved a measure Tuesday to convene a task force to examine how the city decides which festivals to fund.

A city report says many event organizers are now asking the city for funding to put on festivals, but hasn’t had a uniform way to evaluate those events.

The 17-person task force will develop a more formal process to evaluate funding requests and determine who gets city backing.

The move comes after a string of Oceanfront festivals supported by the city either underperformed expectations or didn’t happen at all.

For instance, the city set aside $1.5 million in incentives for the Beach It! country music festival. But it only ended up giving festival organizers $351,000, because the incentive was based on how much tax revenue the event generated.

Under a similar arrangement, the city set aside $2 million dollars for Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival. Organizers got about a million of that, though Something in the Water’s economic impact still grew this year compared to 2019.

The council also voted to give three-quarters of a million to radio group Audacy for a planned rock music festival at the oceanfront. The money would have paid for national radio advertising for the city itself - something some council members questioned the need for. Virginia Beach ultimately pulled the plug after the group failed to get the event together in time.

The task force's reccommendations are due to the city council within 90 days of its first meeting.

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