Oceans Calling 2024

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Oceans Calling 2024

The second annual Oceans Calling Music Festival was a three-day extravaganza from September 27-29, 2024, held on the beach with the backdrop of Ocean City’s iconic Boardwalk.

For me, it wasn’t just the spectacular music performances, but the shared experience with my now 55,000 closest Facebook friends. It was the electric energy, the pure joy of seeing our favorite musicians giving it their all, the surprise musical guests and collabs and cover songs. Braving the torrential rain and flooded streets on day one to dealing with the humidity the next two days. All of this combined made the event truly unforgettable!

From the moment we purchased our tickets last winter, I’ve been looking forward to this festival. And now, as I start writing this article on the following weekend, I’m wishing that I had also gone to Country Calling because I’m having major FOMO. I keep reading the Facebook posts and watching my videos and wishing that I didn’t have to wait another year to experience it all over again.

Last year, I wrote a comprehensive blog post about the logistics of the Oceans Calling 2023 Music Festival. Rather than rehash all that (which is basically the same for this year), I’ll try to focus on new things.

THE PEOPLE

Concert organizers say that there were 55K tickets sold for each day versus 50K last year. Perhaps an unpopular take, but I felt like it seemed less crowded this year. The lines seemed shorter, the crowd density seemed lower, aside from certain times when there was a crush – most notably for the Boyz II Men performance at Carousel and leaving the festival each day, trying to squeeze out of the gate to walk up the Boardwalk.

As far as the ages of the attendees, I felt like the crowd skewed a bit younger than last year but overall, fewer families with young kids and fewer seniors. I felt like the behavior of the attendees was much better than last year – not as many drunk and rowdy folks. Everyone was energized and excited to be listening to live music… and you could tell that the bands appreciated the dancing and singing. The vibe of Oceans Calling is truly epic.

THE LINEUP

After Oceans Calling 2023 we were undecided about going in 2024 – not because we didn’t have an amazing time, but more because of the expense and prioritizing diversity in our annual vacations. Once we saw the 2024 lineup, though, we knew that we had to try to get tickets. With Blink-182, The Killers, and Dave Matthews Band as headliners and so many of our other favorite bands, it was a no-brainer to save up and attend again.

There’s been a lot of commentary that the acts were “too old” with nothing current “in the last decade,” but if you love music you’re sure to love the classics. Last year, I was easily able to say that Weezer was my favorite performance. This year? I just don’t know. It’s a toss up because I really loved them all. If I were to list out my favorite songs of all time, I heard about a dozen of them at Oceans Calling 2024!

Before we went to the concert, we listed out our top priorities, aside from the headliners: O.A.R., Phillip Phillips, Blues Traveler, Barenaked Ladies, Counting Crows, The Offspring, The Beach Boys, and The All-American Rejects. I had already seen The Offspring, Cage the Elephant, O.A.R., Sugar Ray, and The Beach Boys. I knew that I wanted to see all of them again if possible, but difficult choices had to be made!

I printed out the daily lineups and my concert crew (my 22-year-old son and my boyfriend) gathered around the kitchen table and discussed our personal preferences and circled our priorities. We discussed our walking routes, when we would try to eat, when we could go on the rides, when we would try to get up close to the stage, and when we would rest on our beach blanket. We would have to split up at times, and we were all ok with that. There were a few critical overlaps where we would try to sprint back and forth to see both bands at the same time on Sea Bright and Carousel. We weren’t going to sashay in just before the headliners, we were all off work for three days and ready to enter the festival right when it opened at 12:30 PM each day.

Oceans Calling Playlist on YouTube

Click on the upper right menu to see other video clips posted at “The Adventures of Alissa & Kip” YouTube Channel.

FRIDAY / DAY 1

On Friday, it was overcast and drizzling most of the day, making way for heavy rain and wind in the evening. We were prepared with ponchos and raincoats, but it did put a bit of a damper on the festivities. Right after going through security and getting our IDs checked for the “Over 21 Bracelet” we went straight to the Rock and Recycle table to get a trash bag to collect aluminum cans and get a free festival t-shirt. At the festival last year, we noticed people walking around with these bags but by the time we realized what it was, they’d run out of bags.

On Day 1, our first “must see” was Phillip Phillips at the Rockville stage. We prioritized getting up close for that, and after Vincent Lima’s heartfelt performance we kept our place at the front rail and waited an hour for Phillip Phillips to start his set, which most definitely exceeded our expectations! Hearing the huge crowd sing along and sway to Gone, Gone, Gone and Home was such a special moment that I’ll always remember when I hear those songs going forward. Watching his wife and young son watch on from backstage was a sight I’ll always remember.

Mid-afternoon, we went on the Ferris Wheel at the Jolly Rogers Pier (all the rides were free!) and we tried to catch some of both competing acts, Tonic and Larkin Poe. The Lovell Sisters had so much energy that it was impossible to not dance around with them as they jammed out on stage… and as a Baltimorean and Ravens fan, it’s hard to not love them. Their band name comes from their great-great-great-great-grandfather, a cousin of Edgar Allan Poe.

After Larkin Poe, we moved up closer to the stage and staked out a spot right in front to wait for O.A.R. – one of our top priorities. In the meantime, my son ran over to Rockville to watch The Darkness and get some video clips for me to watch later on. He saw almost all of the acts for the entire festival – speed-walking back and forth between all the stages.

Prior to the first Oceans Calling, we knew that O.A.R. was formed in Rockville, Maryland, and enjoyed their songs but hadn’t seen them in concert. Now, we’re absolutely O.A.R. fanatics. The people around us by the stage were also super fans and we had a fantastic time rocking out to their best hits… and it was indeed A Crazy Game of Poker. I grabbed a card from the sand to add to my festival momentos. Watching the other VIPs looking on from the partition above the stage was also fun. If you didn’t know, actor Jason Biggs and Celebrity Chef Robert Irvine are both good friends with Marc Roberge, lead singer of O.A.R. and “Founder” of Oceans Calling.

After O.A.R., we all split up. I went to the bathroom and got some Dumsers ice cream and went to watch The Revivalists – under the Carousel tent, which covered the falling rain but the ground was flooding. I was standing in a puddle with a couple inches of water. For me, this was one of my favorite performances. blink-182’s performance at the end of the night was heavily impacted by the stormy weather.

SATURDAY / DAY 2

My biggest challenge and accomplishment was on Day 2, with the goal to hear all of my favorite songs at The All-American Rejects while also seeing much of The Beach Boys set. Before the concert, we checked out previous setlists for most of the bands. We figured that AAR would play Dirty Little Secret early/mid-act. By pure luck, we timed it just right and were able to get from Beach Boys to AAR to hear that song. Then I went back to The Beach Boys solo for a few songs and saw Dexter from The Offspring do a cameo with them… and then I got back to AAR just in time to hear their last few top songs… next we all rushed over to the Rockville stage for The Offspring.

I saw The Offspring at Pier Six Pavillion in Baltimore a couple years ago and they were excellent. But their performance at Oceans Calling was on another level. The energy was epic and everyone was singing and dancing and acting pretty fly… and maybe we were not quite hip, but in our own mind, we were the dopest trip. By far, The Offspring was one of my favorite performances of the entire festival!

For me, there’s a direct correlation between how close you get to the band as to how much you enjoy the performance. And I always enjoy a performance more if people around me are energized, singing along, and engaged. Typically, if you love a band, you’ll try to get closer. I found that my favorite performances were indeed the ones that I was up close to the stage.

SUNDAY / DAY 3

Day 3 was our biggest question mark. We wanted to see so many of the competing acts, so we had to make some difficult choices. We decided to get up close to Blues Traveler, which meant we would not be as close to the stage for Barenaked Ladies. It was mesmerizing watching John Popper masterfully play his harmonica, less than 20 feet away from the stage.

Next, we rushed straight over to the Starlight stage to see Barenaked Ladies and ended up setting out our beach blanket, although the performance was just too good to actually sit down. It was such a fun set and we were singing along and dancing and having an absolute blast on the sunny beach. One of my favorite songs is One Week, and I’d been spending months trying to memorize the words and actually sing along with the fast timing of the song. I was relieved when I saw that they put the words to the song up on the screen so we could all sing along more easily. The best part was the “Chickity China – the Chinese Chicken,” for which they did a super fun remix. When we all sang along to “If I had a million dollars…” I was daydreaming about going to music festivals all around the world if I was that rich. Or maybe just buying a super fancy Yeti cooler.

In 2023, O.A.R. and Friends was one of our favorite performances so we knew we couldn’t miss it and everyone was anxious with frenzied anticipation about who the ‘friends’ would be! Along with some of the festival’s other performers, they had three special guests: Damian “Jr Gong” Marley, Arrested Development, and Dee Snider. When Marc Roberge announced that Dee Snider was there, it was electric. Twisted Sister is absolutely iconic, and I think everyone was in shock! It was the most exciting performance of the entire festival, by far.

We were also up close to the stage for Counting Crows and watching Adam Duritz perform, I felt like I was at a Broadway show. Get that man a Tony award! I don’t think I’ver ever seen such emotion in a festival performance.

On Friday night, when it was a torrential downpour, I split off from my squad and got under the tent to watch The Revivalists, while others went to Cage the Elephant and to wait up close to Sublime.

Given the high winds all weekend, and heavy rain on Friday, the sound was not always clear. No surprise that the weather can significantly affect the travel of sound by causing sound waves to bend or refract, meaning sounds can be heard further or less clearly depending on the direction of the wind and the presence of rain. Many attendees complained about the sound quality. For me and my crew, if we couldn’t hear, we moved. We never couldn’t hear a band all weekend… it was just a matter of switching our location.

The biggest surprise? “Ladies. Gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen…” I just wanna say that it had to be The Hives! Great stage presence, attire, vocals, instruments, energy. Bravo to the group from Sweden!

When you’re watching your favorite bands and sitting on the beach right next to the ocean, it’s one of those moments in time of pure bliss where you look around and think to yourself, can this please not end? I could stay here forever.

#1 TIP: SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

I’ve gone to a few music festivals and my number one tip is to set realistic expectations and be prepared for uncertainty.

You know it will be crowded.

The weather will be an ever-changing mystery.

You’ll be uncomfortable and tired.

It won’t be perfect.

But it will be perfectly imperfect.

The imperfections will make it so much more memorable.

Listening to the bands you love is worth it.

The next Oceans Calling is coming in September 26-28, 2025.

https://www.oceanscallingfestival.com/