Ocean City, Maryland got a resurgence the weekend of September 29th-October 1st, resembling more of a summer weekend sized crowd than an off-season one. Despite some rain and clouds throughout the weekend, the shows went on without a hitch, and by Sunday the sun even peeked out for a bit.

With this being a first-time festival, and me being very familiar with the area after many years of family vacations there, it was a lot of fun taking everything in and seeing how they set it all up to turn the beach and boardwalk into a music festival. One of the most fun elements of the festival, that I didn’t realize how integrated it would be, was the Jolly Roger amusement park on the pier, sitting right between the two main stages. All of the rides were included with festival admission, so I took the opportunity to ride the ferris wheel one night during John Mayer, and it was such a unique viewpoint to look over the whole crowd. Walking past all the rides and games made it really feel like a fun mix between a concert and a beach vacation, and at points I wished that I had more time to ride the rides rather than running back and forth to see as many shows as I could.

Like most festivals, the main stages are pretty spread out, but the element of it being on sand made those walks between the Sea Bright and Rockville stages feel all the more treacherous. Laying some walking paths down on the sand to make another easy walkway between stages would be a much welcome addition, as the only way to avoid it was to walk out to the boardwalk and then cut back over to the sand. That’s the only real critique I have. Overall, I think things went smoothly considering this is the first time the festival has ever happened. There were plenty of bathrooms, plenty of water refill stations, and lots of places to dispose of trash and recycling. There were also a lot of fun installations for free stuff like the Celsius booth giving away entire cans of energy drinks for free all weekend, which I definitely was grateful for.

In total, I photographed seventeen sets, and walked nearly thirty miles over the course of the weekend. It was definitely a balancing act between watching the shows but also getting over to the next act I wanted to photograph in time if they were on another stage. After day one I realized that running back and forth between the two main stages every hour wasn’t really feasible, so I adjusted my plans a bit to be able to enjoy a bit more of each set. If I've learned one thing over my years of attending festivals, it’s that you’re never going to see every single act you think you will. I still always make my schedule just a bit too ambitious, but I’ve learned to be okay with not seeing everything.

On Friday, I saw Cader Allen, Michigander, Peach Pit, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Slightly Stoopid, Third Eye Blind, and Jack Johnson. Third Eye Blind was probably my favorite of the day, but I enjoyed every set. I did the most running around this day though, so I didn’t see as many full sets.

Saturday my lineup was Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs, Gin Blossoms, Matt and Kim, Jimmy Eat World, and John Mayer. I actually planned on seeing Sheryl Crow, but ended up at Matt and Kim instead because it started raining and Matt and Kim were under a covered tent at the Carousel stage, so I went there instead. No regrets at all, as seeing Matt and Kim at a festival is always great. I even overheard people later who didn’t previously know about them talking about how much fun they had.

Sunday was probably my favorite, not only because the sun started shining, but I got to end the night watching Weezer, who was my favorite act on the lineup and they didn’t disappoint one bit. Leading up to that, I saw The Driver Era, Fitz and The Tantrums, Dirty Heads, and O.A.R & Friends. The surprise of the day was just how fun O.A.R & Friends was. It was a set full of popular cover songs where they brought out a bunch of special guests, including G.Love from G.Love & Special Sauce and Andrew Poliakoff from Virginia Coalition.

Overall, I had a great time at the festival and hope it can continue for years to come in Ocean City.