By Jacqueline Reed
When someone hears the name Pharrell Williams, what most likely comes to mind is his popular song “Happy,” or any of his songs from the “Despicable Me” movies for that matter. What people may not know is that the famous musician’s hometown is only a couple hours south in Virginia Beach, VA.
Williams went to Princess Anne High School whilst growing up and was in their marching band’s drumline, playing the snare. He would also drum in jazz groups throughout middle and high school as well, which is where he'd meet future business partners and even producers. When he moved on with his musical career after graduating, his mom took on a librarian position at Great Neck Middle School, which she drove to and from in her vintage Corvette that Willaims bought for her.
Some would think that he would move on from Virginia Beach and go out to New York or Los Angeles to continue expanding his career, but something kept drawing him back to his hometown – he wanted to do something for the city of Virginia Beach. Then in 2019, an idea he had, became reality when he dropped that he’d be putting together his very own music festival in his hometown called Something in the Water.
The festival would be in April 2019 with a lineup including names such as Migos, Missy Elliot, Pusha T, Foo Fighters and many more. Other than a night of rain, the festival ended up as a success and a second year of hosting the festival was confirmed. Unfortunately, Something in the Water wouldn’t return to Virginia Beach until April 2023 and 2024. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled the festival in 2020 and 2021. Whereas in 2022, the festival was moved to Washington D.C. due to a VBPD officer shooting Williams’s cousin at the Oceanfront.
The music festival wasn’t the only big thing Williams wanted to bring to the town of Virginia Beach. Williams came up with the idea of Atlantic Park, which is described as an event and entertainment district according to their website. The Atlantic Park is located at the Oceanfront as well, based on the location of an old venue called The Dome. The facility has been under construction for a handful of years now, with many Virginia Beach residents curious on what the facility will look like.
These are not the only endeavors Pharrell has his hands full with though, he is also working on not one – but two different films. One being the film ‘Piece by Piece’ which is a biopic about Williams’ life but in lego form. The other film, ‘Atlantis,’ is yet another biopic surrounding his life growing up in Virginia Beach. Williams is also involved with multiple companies, including working with the designer brand Louis Vuitton.
This is where this year’s Something In the Water becomes an issue. After April 2024’s festival, where multiple acts had to drop and be canceled due to the unpredictable spring weather, Williams announced that he would be changing the dates around in order to continue the festival’s success. Months went by and finally the new dates for the Virginia Beach festival was announced: October 12-13, 2024. Locals and fans immediately started making plans to be in town and ready for the festival and its new dates.
However, time moved forward and soon enough it was mid-September and people were wondering when lineup and even ticket information would come out, since the festival was merely a month away. Finally, the Something in the Water instagram account posted about locals-only passes, including information on when and where to purchase these passes. An answer and progress was being made, and fans were getting excited again.
Suddenly, only 24 hours later, another post was made saying the festival was being postponed to April 2025, and people – reasonably – got upset. Virginia Beach locals and even fans of the artist blew up – vowing not to buy tickets or support the festival ever again. Locals were upset, saying they changed their work schedules around to purchase a locals-only pass all for nothing.
Now, it is the end of October 2024 and the situation has died down a lot more. The question that remains is: why the hell did this not work out? If you were to take a step back, it can be easily seen that Mr. Williams definitely has his hands full. He has his hands in multiple music, infrastructure and business projects that have resulted in interferences with each other. He has an overabundance of work that is now affecting one of the biggest festivals that has come to Virginia Beach.
Although some Virginia Beach locals vow to never attend a Something in the Water festival again or even give their money toward anything Pharrell related, others are still hopeful for what April 2025’s festival will bring. Will this be the festival that finally has no weather related issues? Or will it get rained out like in years past? But the more important question is: Will Pharrell be able to balance all his projects out in time and be able to host this festival? Or will he collapse under all the work and be unable to host his hometown festival? Only time will tell, but all I can say for right now is: Pharrell, get a project planner and maybe think before you take on another project.
