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SEPTEMBER 29, 2023
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BikeFest promoter charged with fraud Chase Micheal accused in Florida of passing more than $500K in bad checks
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The setup for this weekend’s Oceans Calling festival appeared to be a major construction project early this week, as crews labored to erect the temporary venue in less-than-pleasurable weather.
By Stewart Dobson Editor (Sept. 29, 2023) OC BikeFest organizer Chase Micheal’s attempt to build a Florida motorcycle rally into something more like his Ocean City version ended badly last Thursday in Panama City, where Micheal turned himself into the county sheriff after being charged with passing more than a half-million dollars in bad checks. According to the arrest report See MICHEAL Page 9
Big business, big weekend Oceans Calling Festival projected to pump $60M into Ocean City economy By Hunter Hine Staff Writer (Sept. 29, 2023) The Oceans Calling music festival means something different to everyone involved. For visitors, it’s a chance to catch some of the biggest music groups while kicking it on the beach. For businesses and city officials, it’s a chance to showcase Ocean City to new visitors while at the same time main-line a major revenue boost. Tom Perlozzo, the city’s tourism and development director, said that
the “Ocean City Economic Impact Calculator,” which measures the economic value and calculated return on investment of all city events, projected the festival to push somewhere around $60 million into the resort economy over three days. “I mean, it’s an extremely large opportunity,” Perlozzo said. “Heads in beds, room nights. Just off the charts, great.” For C3 Presents, the festival promoters, Perlozzo estimated the cost of entertainment to be around $9 million and the cost of festival infrastructure to be around $20 million, and that doesn’t include a multitude of other expenses C3 faces. But Ocean City doesn’t stand to
incur any costs at all, Perlozzo said. C3 is paying a hefty sum to rent the inlet lot and beach, and it has hired many of its own services, such as security. Per the recently signed contract between city officials and promoters, any city services like police, emergency services and public works that are diverted for festival-related work will be billed to promoters. There is a preliminary number for city help in the agreement, but the price is a fluid, depending on if it costs the city more or less than anticipated, Perlozzo said. Unlike the Oceans Calling layout plans from the canceled event last See BOARDWALK Page 10
Traffic routes Parking lots Bus routes Lodging Show lineup More coverage on Pages 3-12
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Ocean City Today
Oceans Calling Festival SEPTEMBER 29 _ OCTOBER 1, 2023 Open to festival guests only featuring fresh seafood, unlimited sides, award-winning raw bar, and a view just for you!
HARBORWATCHRESTAURANT.COM BOARDWALK SOUTH OVERLOOKING THE INLET
SEPTEMBER 29, 2023
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Ocean City Today
Lodging industry anticipates big surge because of festival By Remy Andersen people that are coming down,” Jones Staff Writer said. “It’s a challenge for us, because (Sept. 29, 2023) Amid the influx of we absolutely are excited about this, festivalgoers heading to Ocean City and it’s going to bring a lot of new peothis weekend for the first Oceans Call- ple that have never been to Ocean City ing Festival, downtown hotels and before.” lodging are making preparations to be One major struggle for hotel operaable to host these weekend residents. tors, Jones said, is finding lodging for “As soon as Oceans Calling was an- the employees that come to work for nounced, hotels immediately started the hotels and other businesses in the getting bookings,” Susan Jones, exec- area. utive director of the Hotel-Motel“Some business owners may potenRestaurant Association said. “Many of tially be finding lodging for their employees around their them actually sold businesses,” Jones out very quickly.” She noted that ‘As soon as Oceans Calling was said. “In the case of the first hotels to fill announced, hotels immediately hotel owners, they were listed on the can actually reserve started getting bookings.’ a room or two to let event website and Susan Jones, executive participating with employees stay director of the HMRA there.” the festival, with vaJones also mencancies being listed in some of the smaller lodgings not lo- tioned that everything would depend on where the business is located in order cated in the footprint. “Overall, I’d say this will be a solid to determine the right plan of action. “There are some who could be weekend,” Jones said. A similar trend was recorded last telling their employees to park in the year when Oceans Calling was set to Park N Ride and take the shuttle, and premiere in Ocean City. A washout due if they’re downtown businesses, that to a hurricane threat in this area forced would probably be an option for the event to cancel, leaving hotels with some,” Jones said, noting that most of the traffic for the event will reside a massive number of cancellations. This year, the forecast is looking south of 30th street. While no major weather problems more optimistic, with hotels still on track to anticipate a weekend as busy are in the weekend forecast, hotels will follow the same cancellation policies as it was during the summer. In terms of preparations hotels are that were in place last year. “Some hotels have the 72-hour canundertaking, their main priority is making sure they have enough staff to cellation, others you can cancel on the prepare for the expected onslaught of date of arrival,” Jones said. guests. Additional information for the “Part of all this is, how do we make event can be found on the Oceans Callsure that our employees can get here ing website, www.oceanscallingfestiquickly enough to take care of all the val.com.
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