VIRGINIA BEACH — Some started their festive journey Saturday standing in line across the street from the Convention Center, waiting for a trolley to take them to the Oceanfront where Something in the Water is going on.
Around 2 p.m., at least 50 were lined up. On a patch of grass, a snake-like line of people were surrounded by trees, at least 17 Hampton Roads Transit personnel and a line of green and white porta-potties.
Each received a blue pouch and the city’s Wave Trolley transit map with hours of operation and bus fare.
The wait for the trolley was about 20 minutes.
Some people decided to skip the line and walk a mile to the Oceanfront and others, who were headed uptown away from the festival, were able to go to the front of the line.
Thousands of people have converged at the Oceanfront Saturday for the much-anticipated Pharrell Williams-backed festival.
This after a series of severe thunderstorms and heavy rain forced organizers to cancel opening the festival Friday.
Steve Weatherspoon, 35, a financial manager at a Virginia Beach car company, rode the HRT trolley from the convention center to the Something in the Water festival.
“It’s something different in Virginia,” the Chesapeake resident said.
When Friday’s show was cancelled, he said he went to three bars to drink.
“My heart broke,” he said, and added he and other three-day ticket holders, got a partial refund of 33 percent.
The trolley ride to the Oceanfront was relatively quiet with most of the passengers looking around, glancing at their cellphones or chatting with each other.
(Check out a gallery of photos below)
Outside, the air smelled of cigars and fried food and people dressed in beach wear and festival attire filled the streets, as bikes, scooters and skate boards wove throughout the crowds.
At the Oceanfront, Lisa Jones, 49 from North Carolina, was peering through the gray fence separating the beach goers from the festival attendants.
“We were kinda disappointed when we found out about this,” she said of the festival. Jones comes to Virginia Beach every year to celebrate her mother’s birthday and booked her hotel room four to five months in advance.
“We had no idea,” she said. “I’ll be sure not to do this again.”
Others on the Oceanfront were sitting on beach towels, taking naps and enjoying the festival.
“We took a nap and we woke up and everybody was here,” said Alexis Crouch, 19, a business major from Old Dominion University. Crouch and her friends, Bruce Orozco, 19, an exercise science major and Natalie Guevara, 19, a sociology major, decided to crash the festival since tickets were so expensive.
Big Ligiee, 17, an aspiring hip-hop artist from Virginia Beach, came to the festival with his mother and manager, Kim Fedee, 44, to network.
It’s a very good turnout,” said the Landstown High School student.
His mother agreed.
“I think it’s awesome,” she said about the festival. “I think Virginia been needing this for a long time.”
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