VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Something in the Water Festival (SITW) will return to Virginia Beach Oceanfront in April 2025.
Officials with the city of Virginia Beach announced they received festival plans from SITW organizers.
"As outlined on November 12, we extended the Something in the Water contract agreement deadline to close of business Friday, November 15. We received a signed agreement on Friday, November 15," Virginia Beach officials said in a statement.
On Monday, Nov. 12, during a city council work session, Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer expressed his anger regarding the length of time SITW organizers were taking to produce a contract, and how the postponements negatively affected the city.
"If they do not have this signed, sealed and delivered by close of business on Friday, on Tuesday I will be making a recommendation that we pull the plug and go in a different direction," Dyer said during the work session.
During that same the work session, Robby Wells, the festival's executive producer, said Team Pharrell Williams and the rest of the SITW team hope to meet Dyer's and City Council's terms, even calling them "super fair...very real and understandable."
On Sept. 13, the festival an announcement was made in a social media post alerting fans of the festival's cancellation for this year, just hours after locals-only tickets went on sale and hundreds of disappointed fans found out about the postponed festival while standing in line at the box office.
A statement signed by Pharrell Williams said, "Virginia doesn't deserve better, Virginia deserves THE BEST. So SOMETHING IN THE WATER has to match that. It just isn't ready yet. That's why we as a team have decided we must postpone this year's SOMETHING IN THE WATER festival that was due to take place in October."
City officials - who were also blindsided by the news at the time - then said they were working on finalizing a contract for the new dates, back in October.
They discussed solidifying ways to collaborate with the festival differently in the future, possibly moving from the previous Memorandum of Understanding to a three-year or five-year contract, along with increased communication and progress payments.
The original deadline to deliver that contract was supposed to be Nov. 1, but SITW organizers did not meet that deadline.