VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Beach It! festival is building up excitement for a line-up of star-studded country music artists at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
Crews continued setting up the beach tents and stages for the big event Thursday afternoon. It's a festival now on many people's minds, especially local business owners like D. Nachnani, who also serves as the Atlantic Avenue Association President.
"We've done festival, after festival, after festival," said Nachnani as he praised Virginia Beach city leaders for bringing in big events to put more positive attention on the city. "Each festival seems to be generating anywhere between 20,000 to 50,000 people to our resort and our city...and that's incredible."
People walking along the Oceanfront told 13News Now they are excited about the upcoming festival, some saying they still need to get tickets.
The event is promising more than just large crowds. As the big country music line-up is hoping to make up for the city's loss of the Patriotic Festival to Norfolk, it's also hoping to make up for any lost revenue.
In the past, at pre-pandemic levels, Patriotic Fest brought approximately $6.5 million in 2018, according to the city's economic impact analysis.
It's actually one of the lowest recorded revenues compared to other festivals in Virginia Beach. The festival that brought in the most money in 2018 was actually the East Coast Surfing Championship, according to the city's report, of $25,897,577.
You can compare that to the fact that the report analyzed the city made a total of $138,579,657 from all the 2018 festivals.
Nachnani said Virginia Beach leaders are creating a new analysis of how this year's festivals impacted the city. He said he looks forward to what this festival brings to the table.
"The economic impact is going to be interesting, and it's going to take us a few months to study with the City of Virginia Beach and they'll let us know the numbers, but I'm sure there will be positive numbers that will show that impact of 25,000, 50,000, 90,000 of the consumers coming to Virginia Beach," Nachnani said.
As you head out to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, keep in mind the festival's footprint may be closed or have limited access.
From now until June 30, the 2nd Street Connector, Rudee Loop Parking Lot, 4th Street Municipal Lot, and the 3rd Street Gravel Lot will be closed.