Audacy’s Oceanfront Concerts draws small but lively crowd: ‘Everybody’s out here having fun.’

Katie King, Stacy Parker, Eliza Noe, The Virginian-Pilot
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Cooler temperatures and overcast skies dampened the weekend’s festivities in Virginia Beach, with a smaller-than-expected turnout at Audacy’s Oceanfront Concerts.

That’s not to say those who attended didn’t have a good time.

“All the acts have really put on for Virginia, from the R&B to the rock band, everybody’s just showcasing what we have in Hampton Roads,” Vincent “DJ Vinny Del Sol” Jones said Saturday. “Everybody kind of brought their own crowd. I see some older faces; I see some younger kids; I see little babies running around here.

“Everybody’s out here having fun.”

Virginia Beach asked Audacy, a national radio company that owns several local stations, to fill in the gap left when Pharrell Williams moved his Something in the Water festival to October.

City leaders wanted to provide organized activities for college students. The last weekend in April is traditionally College Beach Weekend, when thousands of students from historically Black colleges and universities vacation in Virginia Beach before exam week.

The city provided Audacy $750,000 and in-kind city services in exchange for national radio advertising promoting Virginia Beach tourism.

“It really takes a village to pull this off,” said Don London, Audacy Virginia’s vice president of programming. “We appreciate the police officers, the fire department and the City Council.”

London lamented the weather, but said the event otherwise went smoothly.

The Oceanfront was quiet in the early evening hours Friday, but as the night progressed, more folks made their way to 31st Street. Visitors and locals were bundled up in sweatshirts and outdoor gear as temperatures dropped to the low 50s amid a strong breeze.

DJs queued pop, R&B and rap songs for the crowd, and passersby on the boardwalk and surrounding areas bobbed their heads along to the music and tried to sneak peeks at the stage.

The main stage’s performances featured acts such as Pkclasik, DJ 2Much, NLE Choppa, Tee Grizzley and Shordie Shordie. For several blocks, folks could hear Alexander Star and The Golden People blast new music on the beach.

Friday night’s headliners on the main stage drew several thousand people, London said.

“The artists were great, and people endured the weather,” he said, adding he was expecting a bigger crowd for Saturday night’s show.

Earlier Friday, Hampton Roads artists took the Homegrown stages from noon to 5 p.m. More than 30 local artists performed for free throughout the festival.

Related Articles

Saturday was mostly cloudy and about 60 degrees near the ocean, but the wind had died down compared with Friday.

On Audacy’s Homegrown Stage at 24th Street, Saturday kicked off with Tapped In, a local musician showcase.

Over the afternoon, several dozen people, including friends and family members of the performers, and some observers who heard the music from the Boardwalk and beach gathered in the park.

Jaketa Thompson of the Virginia Beach Jaycees and her friends stopped by the 17th Street stage where DJs were entertaining a small crowd. She also planned to see Juicy J on the main stage Saturday night.

Unlike College Beach Weekends of years past, the resort area wasn’t crowded with groups of students walking on Atlantic Avenue or the Boardwalk. Instead, there seemed to be locals of all ages enjoying free programming in the public parks.

John Zirkle, president of the Virginia Beach Hotel Association, said there was not an uptick in bookings this weekend.

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com, Stacy Parker, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com, Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com