OCEAN CITY, Md. -- Thousands of country music fans are gathering in the resort town for the inaugural Country Calling music festival. Business owners are excited for what should be a younger crowd and believe it will bode well for Ocean City's nightlife.
Country Calling will feature some of the biggest names in country music, like Jelly Roll and Tyler Childers.
John Fager, owner of Fager's Island, thinks those artists will attract people in their 20's and 30's, a demographic that could head straight to his nightclub after each nightly performance.
Fager believes the late night rush could begin as early as Thursday though, which is why he hired a DJ for Thursday night, a move he typically wouldn't make this late in the year.
"Not on a Thursday night in October, for sure," said Fager. "I think tonight we'll see, as we did last week, we're going to see a lot more people out who are arriving on Thursday or arrived yesterday."
Fager told us he's happy with how Oceans Calling went and he's hopeful for the next few days, but he did admit, he was skeptical when the town decided to double down with back-to-back festivals.
"Spending that kind of money, roping off a part of the boardwalk and all the infrastructure downtown, that had never been done before," said Fager. "To take a big risk like that all at once I thought was pretty aggressive, but it worked."
Kevin Gibbs, owner of The Dough Roller, is a testament to that. He said his boardwalk restaurant, situated inside the footprint of Oceans Calling and Country Calling, has seen a lot of success.
"Breakfasts were great and then you know late nights were really strong as well because there's a lot of people and they're hungry after the festival gets out," said Gibbs. "The festival really touches on all three phases of what a restaurant or food service or hospitality town that Ocean City is, is built on."
He has other locations throughout town though, and said these festivals are helping to spread the wealth.
"It's different successes at different times for all the businesses up and down the entire island," said Gibbs.
A community in harmony with changing themes.
