Thousands of visitors are expected to descend on Waldorf later this month for a two-day music festival headlined by national touring artists, after the Charles County Board of License Commissioners approved a temporary alcohol permit for the event at its Sept. 10 meeting.
The festival, branded Camp SOD (Souled Out Dates), is set for Friday, Sept. 26, and Saturday, Sept. 27, at Regency Furniture Stadium, with gates open from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. each day and a rain date reserved for Nov. 19-20 if needed. The lineup includes PARTYNEXTDOOR, G Herbo, Cash Cobain and Allyn on the first night, with Don Toliver, DaBaby, Yung Miami and additional acts performing the second night, according to the event’s listing on Bandsintown. Organizers told the licensing board they expect a combined 5,000 attendees across the two days, though only 250 to 350 people at a time are expected in the outdoor beer-and-wine area.
A festival built around a fenced-off “food court”
Because Regency Furniture Stadium already holds its own liquor license to serve alcohol inside the ballpark, the temporary permit granted by the board applies specifically to a separate, fenced perimeter area outside the stadium’s west entrance that organizers are calling a food court, where two 10-by-30-foot bars will operate. One of the event’s organizers, who identified himself to the board as the foundation’s CEO, said the outdoor area would include roughly seven-foot fencing and dedicated checkpoints so that alcohol purchased outside the stadium bowl can’t be carried inside it, and vice versa.
Security for the event will include roughly 27 private security personnel, according to sworn testimony before the board, along with 12 additional off-duty Charles County Sheriff’s Office deputies coordinated through the department’s Homeland Security unit, who organizers said will be posted at entrances and roaming the grounds. The event is restricted to attendees 21 and older, with ID checks at four perimeter gates before anyone can enter — organizers testified that patrons with vertical (under-21) IDs will not be admitted at all, even if they are otherwise 21 or older, “to try to avoid any confusion.”
Parking and traffic
Organizers said the stadium’s primary lot holds about 2,800 vehicles, and they have arranged additional parking through the county’s Planning and Growth Management Department, plus a park-and-ride lot at Smallwood Drive and U.S. 301 that will double as a rideshare pickup and drop-off point. An estimated 300 event employees, security staff and production crew will be directed to park roughly 1,200 spaces secured at St. Charles/Maryland Airport-area lots and shuttled to the stadium, organizers said, specifically to keep those vehicles out of general attendee parking.
One board member, who said she’d first heard about the festival from her teenager warning her to “avoid the roads” that weekend, called the event “a good thing to see for the county” but did not raise further questions about traffic.
A scholarship fund born from a bass guitar
Organizers told the board the festival is a fundraiser for a family foundation they said was created after their daughter, a recent graduate of a Charles County high school now studying music at the College of Southern Maryland, struggled to find properly sized instruments as a young musician. They said proceeds are intended to fund a music-scholarship endowment benefiting CSM’s music program and, eventually, instrument funding for Charles County Public Schools, and that they had recently met with the county school system’s leadership about the effort.
The board approved the two-day alcohol permit for the event without recorded opposition.
What residents should know
- Dates/times: Sept. 26-27, 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. (rain date Nov. 19-20)
- Location: Regency Furniture Stadium, 11765 St. Linus Drive, Waldorf
- Age restriction: 21 and older only, including outside the alcohol area — no exceptions for vertical IDs
- Traffic advisory: Heavy congestion is expected around the stadium both days; organizers have arranged offsite parking and shuttle service
