Eroded Dunes, Lost Festival: Ocean City Counts the Cost

Less than a week after a nor’easter swamped its streets, chewed into its dunes and wiped out one of its biggest weekends of the year, Ocean City is racing to put its beach back together before thousands of country music fans arrive Friday.

The storm forced promoter C3 Presents to cancel the entire Oceans Calling festival, which had been scheduled for Sept. 25–27. Its sister event, Country Calling, is set for Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3, on the same downtown beach near the Inlet. It is expected to go on as scheduled.

Whether the beach will be fully ready is the question hanging over the resort this week. Town officials say the cleanup is moving quickly. The larger problem, a beach that was already overdue for new sand before the storm hit, will not be solved until a federal rebuild begins later this fall.

How bad it got

The nor’easter formed off the Southeast coast on Sept. 23 and stalled for days, peaking the morning of Sept. 26. Persistent northeast winds piled water against the Delmarva coast for several high-tide cycles in a row.

The National Weather Service warned of two to three feet of inundation in low-lying areas near shorelines and tidal waterways, and of breaking waves up to 11 feet in the surf zone. Gusts topped 40 mph across Delmarva on Saturday and peaked at 58 mph near Bethany Beach, Delaware.

In Ocean City, water covered St. Louis Avenue south of 14th Street, Philadelphia Avenue south of the Route 50 bridge, and the Inlet parking lot. Ocean City Police issued a travel advisory and warned that onshore winds could make flooding worse than normal tide times suggested. On the bay side, streets sat under about two feet of standing water. One resident joked it was like having his own “personal Venice” in the backyard.

On the ocean side, the damage was to the sand itself. Water breached dunes in Ocean City, and waves carved noticeable chunks out of the dunes at the 72nd Street beach. Downtown, a protective sand berm that had built up on the beach disappeared overnight. One visitor described a sand wall three to four feet tall that was simply gone by morning.

The festival site took a direct hit. Debris from the Oceans Calling build, including floorboards, was seen floating in the water near the Inlet. By Saturday night, The Baltimore Banner described the resort as a waterlogged ghost town, with roads closed and parts of town underwater.

The storm was deadly elsewhere along the East Coast. It was blamed for one death and at least four injuries, knocked out power to more than 100,000 customers and pushed water in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to its highest level since Hurricane Sandy. No deaths or serious injuries were reported in Ocean City.

The danger isn’t over

The Ocean City Beach Patrol ended its season Sunday, Sept. 27, and lifeguard stands have been pulled. Before leaving, the patrol warned that the storm washed a large amount of debris into the ocean, and that debris can be dangerous as it washes back toward shore. The patrol said the days after a coastal storm can be among the most hazardous times to swim, with strong currents and waves lingering after the weather clears.

“September, October are some of the best months here, and lifeguards go off duty,” Ocean City Emergency Services Director Joe Theobald told WTOP. “Just enjoy yourselves and use common sense when you come to Ocean City.”

Anyone heading into the water should check the Beach Patrol’s flag warnings first.

How Oceans Calling fell apart

The cancellation came in two stages. On Thursday, Sept. 24, organizers canceled Friday’s lineup, which was headlined by Dave Matthews Band, while trying to save the weekend. By Friday morning the forecast had worsened, and C3 Presents called off the entire festival. It cited a stronger, more westward storm track from the National Weather Service and said tides, flooding and high winds had made it unsafe to keep building the site.

The sold-out event had more than 40 acts scheduled on three oceanfront stages, including Twenty One Pilots on Saturday and Mumford & Sons on Sunday. Tickets bought through Front Gate Tickets will be refunded automatically within about 30 days. Organizers said they cannot resolve problems with wristbands bought on third-party resale sites.

It is the second time in five years the festival has been wiped out by weather. The inaugural 2022 edition was canceled ahead of Hurricane Ian.

“They made the right call on this one. There’s no way this could have taken place,” Theobald said. “This was a powerful storm. So, we’re going to get things back to normal as quickly as we possibly can.”

The cleanup

On Monday, crews began inspecting all 10 miles of Ocean City beach for erosion and checking whether the dunes need to be shored up.

Downtown, the focus is on the festival grounds. “Public works has been out here all day. Getting the sand off the boardwalk. Manicuring the beach,” Mayor Rick Meehan told WMDT. He said crews had moved up the beach and had begun “bringing things back up to par” at the concert venue, and that the town is “working very closely” with C3 Presents.

Is it fixable by Friday?

For the festival itself, the answer from the town is cautiously yes. Clearing sand from the boardwalk and regrading the beach is work that bulldozers and front-end loaders can do in days. The forecast is cooperating: the National Weather Service calls for mostly sunny skies and highs near 74 on Thursday and Friday.

Meehan said the forecast “looks good.” He stopped short of declaring the site ready, and C3 Presents has not publicly described the condition of the Country Calling stages or grounds. Country Calling’s website and ticketing show the event on as scheduled.

The protective beach is a different story. Pushing sand around does not replace sand the ocean carried away. That takes an offshore dredge, and the next one isn’t scheduled to arrive until after the festival.

Where the Army Corps comes in

Ocean City’s beach is not just a town beach. It is part of the Atlantic Coast of Maryland Storm Protection Project, a 50-year partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that dates to 1994. The project combines a wide, raised beach berm, a seawall built into the boardwalk, and a vegetated dune line that runs from the boardwalk north to the Delaware line. The Corps pays 53% of the cost. The state of Maryland, Worcester County and the town split the other 47%.

The Corps estimates the system has prevented about $927 million in storm damage since it was built in the early 1990s.

“It’s in all hands, whether it be state, federal and local government, that make sure that beaches are replenished and things are restored,” Theobald said.

The timing of this storm is awkward. The Corps normally adds new sand about every four years, but Ocean City’s last full replenishment was in the winter of 2021–22, and the beach went into this storm overdue. A $27 million project to pump about 800,000 cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor onto roughly eight miles of beach is scheduled to begin in October and finish before Memorial Day 2027. The Maryland Board of Public Works approved $12.7 million in state money for the work, and Congress included $20 million in the fiscal 2026 budget for the project. Beachgoers should expect three-block sections of beach to close for about three days at a time while the work moves up the coast.

That project was designed before the nor’easter. Federal law allows the Corps to help rehabilitate federally authorized shore-protection projects after major storms. As of Tuesday, the Corps’ Baltimore District had not publicly said whether it will survey the storm damage or expand the fall project to account for sand lost this week.

What’s at stake

The two C3 festivals are among the resort’s biggest paydays. Tom Perlozzo, Ocean City’s director of tourism and business development, said last year that Oceans Calling and Country Calling together brought about $300 million to the town. The festivals draw more than 50,000 people a day, and hotel rooms run about $400 a night during festival weekends.

This year the resort needed the boost. Hotels were 79% full in August, down from 89% a year earlier, after a summer of heavy rain and jellyfish. Some businesses salvaged the lost weekend. Buxy’s Salty Dog Saloon hosted an impromptu two-set show by Scottish singer KT Tunstall, which owner Douglas Buxbaum called one of his favorite nights in 27 years of running the bar. Others were stuck with merchandise: a local T-shirt shop printed “CANCELED” across shirts made for the festival.

If you’re going to Country Calling

• Friday, Oct. 2: Lainey Wilson, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, Russell Dickerson, Travis Tritt and more
• Saturday, Oct. 3: Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert, Brothers Osborne, Dustin Lynch, Charley Crockett and more
• Updates: Check countrycallingfestival.com and the festival app for schedule changes.
• In the water: No lifeguards are on duty for the rest of the season. Watch for storm debris and rip currents.

This coverage is brought to you by Coast 2 Coast RV Rental, Official Coverage Sponsor of The Southern Maryland Chronicle.

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