OCEAN CITY, Md.- It will be round two of Oceans Calling after the inaugural festival was canceled due to bad weather in 2022.
For Piezano's Pizza on the boardwalk, things didn't go as planned last year. Manager Cengizhan Unal says the weather was a bust.
"It was really windy, really rainy, and they shut off the boardwalk from the construction," Unal says. "That kind of slowed down traffic a bunch and it really didn't go as we hoped."
A lot of local businesses want to make sure they are included this year in the festival's planning. Preliminary talks with the town have left some businesses unsure.
"I've heard some propositions that might affect businesses in ways that they wouldn't want to," Unal says. "Hopefully, both parties reach an agreement on how to make things run a little bit more smooth."
Patrick Poloney is the Vice President at Flashback Old Time Photos on the boardwalk and he understands why some businesses would be hesitant to partner with the festival unless things were talked out more.
"I don't sell food, so I think they would be very hesitant to do something like that," Poloney says. "I wouldn't want to enter into a partnership with someone that I don't work with all the time."
The town of Ocean City says that the talks of businesses being a part of the footprint of the festival is completely voluntary, but if businesses decide to partner or not, the town will make sure the boardwalk is accessible to the public during festival weekend. Businesses still have high hopes for the music festival.
"Even with them canceling and it was a success for the town because it brought people in no matter what so what if it blows up and weather's perfect," says The Bearded Clam owner Mike Strawley. "Like I said, it was gonna be it's gonna be like prior record weekend for the whole town."
"Hope the weather holds out, hope it brings in a nice crowd," Unal says. "You know, it's good to kind of get Ocean City out there on the different aspects pretty big festival."
Oceans Calling is set for September 29th to October 1st of this year.