A week after a nor’easter forced the cancellation of Oceans Calling, Ocean City is getting ready to host its sister festival on the same stretch of sand.
Country Calling is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3, on the downtown beach at the Ocean City Inlet. Lainey Wilson closes Friday night and Chris Stapleton closes Saturday. As of Thursday, the festival’s website was promoting the event as happening “this weekend” and still selling tickets. The on-site box office opened Thursday afternoon.
The festival is going on, but on a beach the storm left in worse shape.
What the storm did
The nor’easter formed off the Southeast coast on Sept. 23 and stalled for days, peaking the morning of Sept. 26. Northeast winds pushed water against the Delmarva coast through several high tides in a row. The National Weather Service warned of two to three feet of inundation in low-lying areas and breaking waves up to 11 feet. Gusts peaked at 58 mph near Bethany Beach, Delaware.
In Ocean City, water covered St. Louis Avenue, Philadelphia Avenue south of the Route 50 bridge, and the Inlet parking lot, the same lot that sits next to the festival grounds. Debris from the Oceans Calling build, including floorboards, was seen floating near the Inlet.
The worst damage was to the sand itself. Water breached dunes, waves cut chunks out of the dunes at 72nd Street, and a protective sand berm on the downtown beach disappeared overnight.
Promoter C3 Presents first canceled Friday’s Oceans Calling lineup, which was headlined by Dave Matthews Band. By Friday morning it called off the entire festival, saying tides, flooding, and high winds made it unsafe to keep building the site. It was the second time Oceans Calling had been wiped out by weather. The first festival, in 2022, was canceled ahead of Hurricane Ian.
Up the coast, the storm was blamed for one death, cut 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.
Getting the beach ready
Town crews began inspecting all 10 miles of beach Monday. Downtown, public works crews cleared sand off the boardwalk and regraded the festival grounds.
Mayor Rick Meehan told WMDT the town is coordinating closely with the promoter. “There’s a call every morning with the city manager and the C3 executives,” he said. The calls cover what work remains and where the town can help, especially with moving sand around the edges of the concert area.
Regrading can make the festival site usable. It can’t replace sand the ocean carried away. Ocean City’s beach was already overdue for new sand before the storm. Its last full replenishment was in the winter of 2021–22, and the Army Corps of Engineers normally adds sand about every four years.
A $27 million Army Corps project will pump about 800,000 cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor onto roughly eight miles of beach. It is set to begin in October and finish before Memorial Day 2027, with three-block sections of beach closing for about three days at a time. That project was designed before the nor’easter. As of earlier this week, the Corps had not said whether it would expand the work to cover the sand lost in the storm. The Chronicle’s full report on the storm damage and the replenishment plan has more detail.
Why this weekend matters
Ocean City’s tourism director said last year that the two C3 festivals together brought about $300 million to the town. The festivals draw more than 50,000 people a day.
The resort needs a good weekend. Hotels were 79% full in August, down from 89% a year earlier, after a summer of heavy rain and jellyfish. Then the storm took Oceans Calling. Country Calling is also shorter this year: it dropped its Sunday and runs two days instead of last year’s three.
The lineup
This is the festival’s third year. More than 25 artists will play three stages, two on the beach and one along the boardwalk.
- Friday, Oct. 2: Lainey Wilson, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, Russell Dickerson, Travis Tritt, Mitchell Tenpenny, Wyatt Flores, Kaitlin Butts, Redferrin, and Noeline Hofmann
- Saturday, Oct. 3: Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert, Brothers Osborne, Dustin Lynch, Charley Crockett, Clay Walker, Jackson Dean, Rodney Atkins, and Carter Faith
Past headliners include Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and Luke Combs in 2025, and Jelly Roll and Eric Church in 2024. Wilson also headlined in 2024.
The festival footprint includes boardwalk restaurants, bars, and shops, plus the rides at Jolly Roger at the Pier, all open to ticket holders. New this year are “Country Calling Bungalows,” elevated private suites for groups of 12 with views of the Boot Stage.
If you’re going
- Box office: On Inlet Beach between 1st and 2nd streets, across from the Plim Plaza Hotel. Hours are 1–7 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Saturday. Bring a government-issued ID for will-call. (Festival box office info)
- Wristbands: Activate your wristband before you arrive for faster entry and cashless payments.
- Schedule and updates: Set times and any weather changes will be posted on the festival schedule and in the official app.
- Weather: Forecasts earlier this week called for mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-70s on Friday. Check the National Weather Service forecast before you leave.
- In the water: The Ocean City Beach Patrol ended its season Sept. 27, so no lifeguards are on duty. The patrol warned that storm debris can wash back toward shore and that strong currents often linger after a coastal storm. Check the beach flag warnings before going in.
This coverage is brought to you by Coast 2 Coast RV Rental, Official Coverage Sponsor of The Southern Maryland Chronicle.
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