VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Something in the Water festival has been canceled for the second year in a row due to COVID-19.
A source from the team who helped put on the festival confirmed the cancellation to News 3 Wednesday night.
The music festival at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront is the brainchild of Hampton Roads native and music mogul Pharrell Williams, who was born and raised in the city.
Music fans were looking forward to being together, while Oceanfront businesses were looking forward to the economic boost after an already tough 2020 financially.
The event that drew more than 35,000 people to the resort city in 2019 now joins the Pungo Strawberry festival in local events that have been canceled due to COVID in 2021.
John Uhrin Director of Operations at Burlage Management said, "I've worked with a lot of those organizers over the years and all of them desperately want to return to normal and to get them back up and running." Burlage Management oversees the Schooner Inn, which is by SITW's main stage.
On a locally run community calendar, many upcoming events and festivals are labeled "TBD."
Updated on February 9, 2021, the MOCA Boardwalk Art Show and Neptune Festival seem to be the only ones not under review for September and October. Although as we have seen many times before that could change.
Uhrin said, "I think you're going to find out all of them are going to wait until the absolute last possible minute to make that call."
Back at Sunnyside, Frank said he's just focusing on one day "let’s get through this 2021 in good health and will see about the rest." The cafe and restaurant is open everyday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The first year of the festival was in 2019 and was a huge success for the region. According to an analysis completed by the the City of Virginia Beach, the total economic impact on Hampton Roads was $24.11 million.
SITW was also canceled last year at the onset of the pandemic.
