VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Initial numbers show that “serious crime” on Something in the Water weekend is down compared to recent College Beach Weekends.
While Virginia Beach Police have yet to release the full crime numbers for the weekend, on Tuesday Deputy City Manager Steve Cover indicated that from what they can tell, things improved.
“Initial early indicators are that the numbers are trending in the downward notion, so that’s a great thing, especially with the increase in people we had here,” Cover said.
Well over 35,000 people traveled to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront for the 3-day music and cultural festival. Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams brought together several big-name acts like Missy Elliott, Pusha T, Chris Brown, Jay-Z and many more, in an effort to move the city away from the stigma of College Beach Weekend.
The informal event held the last weekend in April had been a time when Historically Black College and University (HBCU) students would visit the resort town. However, the weekend has been riddled with shootings and other crime.
“We had some misdemeanors, I wouldn’t say the arrest numbers were more than a busy weekend,” Cover said. “Overall it was a success.”
An additional $250,000 is being included in the budget for Convention and Visitors Bureau in order to sponsor another installment of the festival. Cover said city staff is already talking about what they can change.
Notably, they are going to look at Uber and Lyft pickup. Saturday night into Sunday morning people had to wait for hours for a ride from the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
“When we rerouted traffic, that impacted Uber, Lyft. When we realized that was the case we made some adjustments on site,” Cover said. “Just create better efficiency there.”
On the EMS side, Cover said all medical emergency plans went smoothly.
433 patients were seen, 365 of which were festival attendees.
15 people had to be transported to the hospital.
245 fainting calls
In addition, 7 people were cited for peddling without a license.
