VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Beach It! Country Music Festival brought thousands to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront for its first year.
Country music stars rocked the two stages on the beach. However, with all the work that goes into setting up the big event, there's of course, the big effort to break it all down.
For the past week, city workers closed down parking and fishing at Rudee Loop. They also closed off the 2nd Street Connector, 4th Street Municipal Lot, and the 3rd Street Gravel Lot for crews to set up the festival.
For some, the lot closures and construction crews are tainting their local spot. Some surfers told 13News Now the back-to-back festivals are making it harder for them to enjoy their own beach.
For others, though, the two-day process isn't causing much of a headache.
"I embrace it, big time," said Rick Hocker who was walking the boardwalk with his family on Monday afternoon. "My wife and I love to walk the boardwalk and one of the things we get a kick out of is all the great festivals we had this year in Virginia Beach."
Even for out-of-towners like Marykay and Martin Walsh, the festival brought a sweet surprise to their vacation.
"I booked this 10 months ago, Dolphin run, and my cousin texted Thursday before we came down and said, 'guess what's going on...Beach It!' and I'm like, 'Ooh what?'" Marykay Walsh said as she laughed about the surprise.
The Walshes took Monday morning as an opportunity to take their grandchildren to the playground at Rudee Loop and enjoy the sunshine before the potential for severe weather Monday evening.
While the Walshes had to weave between fences and avoid big trucks hauling pieces of the country music stage, they didn't mind it, even on their vacation.
"I actually think it was well managed and well-engineered," said Martin Walsh. "Someone might have called it an inconvenience, but it really wasn't. You just take a couple extra minutes to get around what you need to get around. I don't see an issue at all."
Rick Hocker spent the past 36 years calling Virginia Beach home. While he has to navigate through the festival breakdown, he said the minor inconvenience is worth the big return on investment.
"It's really a boost for the city of Virginia Beach and it's our beach. We love it," Hocker said. "Yeah, I want to go out there, but I love that people enjoy coming to our city and it takes work to do projects like this."
13News Now asked Virginia Beach City Communication workers if the potential for severe weather would delay any of this work. As of Monday afternoon, they said they should stay on track to wrap up by the end of Tuesday.
This means those three parking lots and Rudee Loop are scheduled to reopen Wednesday.