VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach leaders are getting ready for a busy weekend at the Oceanfront.
Officials expect more than 30,000 college students to pack the beaches, a number not seen since 2018, on top of sports tournaments and events planned this weekend.
“We are anticipating students coming in from up and down the East Coast this weekend, but a lot of local colleges too,” said City of Virginia Beach Director of Communications Tiffany Russell.
In preparation, Virginia Beach Spokesperson Tiffany Russell said resort ambassadors will spread across the beach to help visitors.
The Virginia Beach Police Department will also ramp up patrols and keep an extra eye on surveillance cameras.
“Public safety is always the number one priority for any large weekend,” Russell said.
Russell said people will have plenty of things to do. City leaders said they also scheduled nightly entertainment and made extra accommodations for people making their way to the resort city.
“We are installing porta-potties on the sand from 16th to 23rd Street to accommodate the large crowds,” Russell said.
Harvest restaurant owner Mike Mauch said he’s preparing too.
“I am just putting more people on staff, we are going to order a lot more food than we normally do,” Mauch said.
He said he’s excited about spring crowds but hopes his team can power through the weekend.
“Always looking forward to an influx of people coming in, but always a little nervous making sure we have all the stuff we need, all the people we need,” Mauch said.
Russell said city leaders made a traffic diversion plan that is ready to be deployed if needed.
“It is critical that residents know traffic is going to be awful, we want you to plan for it,” Russell said.
She said they are posting flyers and launching a messaging campaign to make sure visitors and residents are informed.
Russell said they partnered with area colleges to set up a student outreach resource as well.
“It’s not just 311 that is a resource, we also have an online survey at publicinput.com that they can go and give us feedback,” Russell said.
Russell said Virginia Beach is ready for the tourist season.
“We want everyone to have a great experience while they are here, take care and respect our property and leave with good memories,” Russell said.
The city just launched a webpage with information for the college beach weekend.
City leaders said they also have more than 15 permitted events at the convention center, sports center, and throughout the city that are bringing people to the beach.