OCEAN CITY, MD - The Country Calling music festival had its first day on Friday, with town officials expecting roughly 55,000 people to visit the town for the weekend.
Town officials said the town could see anywhere from 40 to 50 million dollars in economic impact from the concert's inaugural year.
Fans lined the streets when WBOC visited early Friday afternoon; with many of them waiting in line before the doors opened.
With the large influx of people in town, Ocean City Director of Tourism Tom Perlozzo said the festival is expected to benefit the town economically.
"It's putting heads in beds, it's putting people in our restaurants, it's keeping our employees employed, our businesses open, so again it's doing what it's supposed to do," Perlozzo said.
Perlozzo told WBOC that events like Country Calling are critical in the shoulder season. He said one goal of hosting festivals like this one is to make Ocean City a year-round destination.
Perlozzo said that events like Country Calling and Oceans Calling have been helping Ocean City be put on the map.
"We've got other promoters calling and asking. 'can we come to Ocean City, can we do this, can we do that,' and it's not just music. It's every kind of event you can imagine," Perlozzo said.
The director of tourism said that the demographic of these crowds spreads across the map.
"The beauty about this is that about 50% of the visitors that are coming here have not been to Ocean City or Maryland," Perlozzo said. "This is a huge opportunity to showcase what we have here and hopefully bring them back for a summer vacation."
Some of those visitors were Allesandra Lanski and her friends. They told WBOC that they were visiting the festival all the way from California.
"It's the first one so it's kinda exciting being part of the first Country Calling," Lanski said.
The tourism director said the town hopes to make country calling a tradition in years to come. He said they will weigh the pros and cons from this year, to make adjustments for next year.
Country Calling started on Friday and runs through Saturday.
