VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - — The Something in the Water and BEACH IT! music festivals had positive returns on investment for the city, according to data presented at the Virginia Beach city council meeting Tuesday.
The City's Convention and Visitors Bureau worked with the Institute for Service Research to analyze the data, which were presented as estimates.
This past April marked the return of the Something in the Water festival.
Something in the Water
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In the two days it actually went on, 33,000 people attended each day and brought the city an estimated economic impact between $26 million to $29 million.
The report also found the BEACH IT! festival in June brought an average of 10,000 people in each of the three days with an estimated economic impact between $11.3million to $12.8 million.
For every dollar the city spent on Something in the Water, it got between $1.04 to $1.18 back.
For BEACH IT!, the figure was between $1.93 and $2.17.
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"The public did want us to reactivate the resort, and I think this is a response to that," said Councilman Worth Remick. "The public also wants to know the return on investment to city dollars."
Separately, City Auditor Lyndon Remias looked into the city dollars spent on the festivals.
In a sponsorship agreement with Live Nation to hold the Something in the Water, the city council agreed to give them up to $2 million based on taxes generated from the festival through admissions, meals, and part of sales taxes collected.
Remias found Live Nation collected less than half of that at $970,000.
"They didn't maximize for a variety of reasons," said Remias in an interview with News 3. "Day three was canceled. They didn't maximize the amount they could've earned."
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For BEACH IT!, the city council approved up to $1.5 million in a sponsorship agreement on the taxes on ticket sales, but Live Nation only got about $350,000.
"I think if you ask any promoter, it's always hard when you have a first year event because you have unknowns," said Remias.
News 3 asked Remias if he thinks the city's investments in these festivals were wise.
"From the city's standpoint and the structure of the sponsorship," he said. "I think it put the city in a win-win position."
