Ocean City's big events: 'It takes the entire town'

At its inception, Sunfest was an event intended for Ocean City locals.

Frank Miller, the town's special events director, described it as a small parking lot celebration of the end of the season.

"Everybody would close up and go home and the lights would go into a yellow blink mode and nobody would be in town," he said. 

Today, the festival has grown into one of the resort town's largest and most popular special events. But it looks very different than it did when it was born more than four decades ago.

At almost 45 years old, Sunfest draws upwards of 200,000 people over the course of four days to the 8.4-mile tourist destination. Miller and Special Events Coordinator Brenda Moore consider its origin to be the early stage of a gradual shift toward expanding the season.

Already, Ocean City, a town of less than 10,000 year-round residents, sees its population balloon to approximately 8 million visitors each summer as they flood into Maryland's vacation hotspot.

But as it continues its transition toward a year-round town, the Special Events Department’s role is to drive business and tourism at times of year that traditionally haven’t had much going on.

It's an effort that has bolstered the popularity of events like the St. Patrick's Day Parade that take place at times of year that aren't traditionally thought of as part of the busy season, but requires a mindful use of town resources to keep from overtaxing them.

Moore said that March event in particular is increasingly thought of as a kick-off point for the town, but for her, that push toward being year round is a constant work in progress.

"I think it’s really ongoing,” she said. “I don’t see a beginning and an end. I see it as this evolving thing."

That’s why the department has begun looking toward the younger generation as the next "major shift," launching events like ArtX and adapting mainstays like Sunfest to bring in a tourist base of 20- and 30-somethings that will draw private event producers looking to target those demographics.

Lisa Mitchell, who coordinates private events for the town, fields at least a few inquiries each year about bringing something new to Ocean City, but as with any special event, a lot rides on the capacity of the town’s public space and staff.

"It takes the entire town in the planning and coordination,” she said. “Where public works and the police are the two most seen and most utilized, it really takes the entire town. Everybody’s involved."

In an April budget presentation in front of the Ocean City Town Council, Police Chief Ross Buzzuro highlighted the demand for more police services and manpower with the number of special events increasing and the season continuing to expand as being among the department’s primary challenges.

Between 2010 and 2017, he said the number of sanctioned special events the agency is involved in grew from 52 to 74, but the number of full-time police officers has seen little fluctuation during that same period. Compared to 2009 when the department had 107 officers, it had 106 for 2017.

The agency has seen a recent increase in reserve officers, but its seasonal workforce has shifted. At one time, the town hired closer to 100 seasonal officers, but for 2017, had about 70, a change that’s been offset by an increase in public safety aides. 

"We continue to get the job done and all," Buzzuro said during the meeting. "Looking forward, all the indicators are that there’s going to be more visitors, there’s going to be more events, there’s going to be more things that we’re tasked with."

Lt. Scott Harner, the Ocean City Police Department’s special events coordinator, has been involved in the agency’s planning for these kinds of activities since 2005.He now has his hands in public safety arrangements for both small, largely local parades and car shows that attract thousands.

Summer enforcement tends to focus on the bustling Boardwalk, he said. But when it comes to special events, each requires a distinct approach, taking into account a variety of factors, such as size and scope, past attendance, growth and social media activity.

"Whether it’s a large or small event, planning often begins immediately following a current event for the following year by assessing what went well and what improvements can be made or should be made in anticipation of the following year’s events," he said.

The next big shift

Sunfest came out of an effort by local businesses and leaders who weren’t ready to close up shop, Moore said. They wanted to plan something post-Labor Day that would take advantage of the nice September weather. 

Eventually, tourists, especially those without school-age children, started returning during this time as well, she said.As September became busier, events moved toward October, when the popular Endless Summer Cruisin’ car show and other budding festivities now take place.

Springfest, which finished its 27th go-around earlier this year, accomplished something similar on the other end of the spectrum, bringing thousands to town weeks before Memorial Day.

“Then Winterfest took it right through the end of the year,” Moore said.

The push for the Special Events Department used to fall around June, the early part of the peak summer season when Miller said there were once slow weekends.

But following the popularity of events like the OC Air Show that came to town in 2008, those efforts now target October through December. Five years ago, Miller described Halloween as being a "dead time" for the resort.

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Ocean City’s tourism metrics reports show that in 2013, room occupancy, one of several measures of the town’s tourism and travel trends, sat just above 45 percent for October.

Today, the town offers a myriad of events to celebrate the spookiest time of year, including the Halloween Beach Maze, Drive in Disguise and Big Toys on the Boardwalk, and the progress shows in the numbers.

In 2017, the metrics report illustrates a rise of more than 10 percent in October room occupancy, and the remainder of the year shows similar increases. 

“We have a lot of events now happening in those times when we had nothing going on,” Miller said.

The expansion doesn’t end there though. To build on the popularity of the Drive in Disguise boardwalk parade, he said the department plans on incorporating additional children’s activities, as well as a zombie crawl that will hopefully entice businesses, restaurants and the 21-and-up crowd.

Those plans are now coming to fruition, but Miller said talks began about five years ago. It’s part of an effort to anticipate what the department’s staff expects is the next big shift in Ocean City toward appealing to a younger generation of tourists.

“We know in order to drive those future families to this town, you have to first be exposed to it at a young age, which is what we were,” he said. “I came here initially as part of senior week. That’s how I got exposed to Ocean City, Maryland.” 

That’s why Miller and his staff are working to make changes like transferring paper pamphlets over to smartphone apps and adding new events like ArtX that are meant to offer the kind of interactive entertainment they feel that younger audience is hungry for.

ArtX, which used to be the Arts Alive fine arts show, launched in August, offering art displays, workshops, live performances, food and cinema.

As the event continues to adapt to new trends and lessons learned, Miller said the concept likely won’t look the same eight years down the road as it did this year.

“We’re always monitoring what our demographics’ interests are,” he said. “We’re also looking at ways to bring in some of the younger target market that maybe Ocean City really wants to see more of here, as well as appeasing our older demographic that’s already coming here to Ocean City.”

All hands on deck

With more than 200 event days on the department’s calendar, Mitchell said February is the only month when there isn’t something going on in Ocean City.

That number doesn’t indicate the actual number of days out of the year when there are special events in town, instead counting up the days in each event. However, it doesn’t account for overlap. 

For example, when Sunfest or the OC Air Show are in town, the department tries not to have anything else going on. But in October, there are weekends when four or even five events overlap.

“I feel like we’re at a good level. We’re busy a lot,” Mitchell said. “In the summertime, we have some events, but it’s not a time that we really promote events because we have so many people coming in just to enjoy the beach and the Boardwalk.”

There’s a delicate balance, Miller explained, that has to consider unsanctioned events and activities at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center that aren’t counted in those event days. His department doesn't coordinate those events, but still needs to keep an eye out for prevent potential conflicts.

There’s also a point where the town reaches saturation, he said, not necessarily in terms of the number of people, but in regard to the strain these events put on the town.

With Winterfest, there are more than 400 displays featuring a million lights that are set up by the Recreation and Parks Department by the end of October, though it doesn’t kick off until mid-November.

"That’s something that they have to get involved with and do so we know that we’re taxing them to some extent when we ask them to go and do an event like this especially. We have to be very wary of that," Miller said.

Ocean City is still known as a "family-friendly town," Miller said, and with events that draw hundreds of thousands of people, he said there are many eyes and ears on the ground. At the same time, however, he said safety is meant to stay somewhat subtle so that attendees aren’t deterred.

“The police department has their own process for planning for events and they put forth a lot of effort on the front end to know what could be coming our way, to keep an ear to the ground to what’s going on on social media,” Miller said.

'Safety in the forefront'

By the time Winterfest comes to a close in December, the layout for next year’s lights show will already be decided.

That’s how special event planning happens in Ocean City. It's a year-round endeavor, and that's for the police department as well.

“We prepare for every event with safety in the forefront of our minds and understanding that a lot of those events overlap so there may be multiple events occurring on a single day and balancing appropriate support levels for each event — sometimes simultaneously — is a delicate mix,” Harner said. 

There are lots of factors that go into the timeline it takes to get organized for a special event. With Dew Tour, for example, which ran from 2011 through 2014 in Ocean City, Harner said planning started “well in advance,” especially in anticipation of that first year when it was new and expected to bring large crowds to the beach.

Though they’re familiar sights in the resort town, preparations for large events like OC BikeFest and the OC Air Show can still begin at least six months in advance.

Just as its significance has grown among event promoters, social media's function in event preparation also continues to expand for the police department.

Obviously, interest in social media can offer different numbers compared to registered participants, but Harner said the agency monitors a mix of the two so that it’s aware of what peripheral crowd size might look like.

“It is important to understand that to get a better understanding of what staffing levels may be needed for the event as a whole,” he said.

When available, seasonal employees can then help the department make appropriate adjustments in manpower to meet the increased needs for service in response to that influx of people.

The agency also employs the aid of its auxiliary officers, who volunteer their time to assist with several responsibilities, many of which fall under the umbrella of special event enforcement.

The police department’s 2017 annual report shows auxiliary officers volunteered more a total of 2,390, equating to more than $83,000 in savings.

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Approximately 66 percent of those hours fell into the patrol category, an area of service that police department spokesperson Lindsay Richard said is primarily spent performing traffic control and security duties at events like Sunfest, Winterfest and concerts at Sunset Park.

“They perform functions that can alleviate our officers and public safety aides and allow more of them to be on the road handling calls for service or more critical details related to the events,” she said.

When establishing manpower for a particular special event, Harner said methodologies like Compstat, or Computer Statistics, and DDACTS, which stands for Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety, that are regularly used by the department to set staffing levels are also considered.

But manpower doesn’t just come from within the Ocean City Police Department. Allied agencies like Maryland State Police and the sheriff’s offices play an important role in special event enforcement as well.

“As far as assisting agencies, it’s a balance,” Harner said. “State police and the county, obviously if we have a special event in town, they still also have the county to be responsible for. Although the majority of the events may be occurring in Ocean City, there certainly is some overflow and increased demand in calls for service in the county and in the state as well.”

Individualized approach

Because each special event takes place in different parts of town, lets people participate in different ways and brings in different crowd sizes, there’s no one-size fits all approach to staffing and enforcement.

During his budget presentation, Buzzuro emphasized that the increase in special events doesn’t include unofficial and unsanctioned events that have seen a heavy police presence like the H2O International car show and College Beach Weekend.

This year’s H2Oi event officially moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, but social media indicated Ocean City would likely still be seeing a flood of car enthusiasts in the last weekend of September.

The police department responded by deploying what Buzzuro described in a news release as a “proactive enforcement strategy.”

During a ride-along with a Delmarva Now reporter, Cpl. Jeff Johns estimated that strategy saw more than four dozen officers patrolling at one time on Friday night alone.

It was the second time the town established a Special Event Zone, lowering speeds along Coastal Highway and increasing fines for common traffic violations.

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Officials first employed the Special Event Zone during Cruisin' Ocean City, a sanctioned May event that hosts activities both at the Inlet Parking Lot and the Convention Center.

Producer Bob Rothermel said the organizers work to maintain order in the locations where their events take place, but look to the police department to handle enforcement on the road.

It isn’t registered Cruisin’ participants that cause trouble, he said, but rather those in the periphery who are bent on causing havoc, a group he advocates law enforcement deal with firmly.

“We don’t have jurisdiction over the streets,” he said. “The police have the jurisdiction so we have encouraged them to maintain a heavy hand in terms of maintaining law and order.”

While enforcement operations during car shows tend to concentrate on roadways, an event like College Beach Weekend brought the heaviest law enforcement presence to the Boardwalk where in 2016, reports show that crowds of up to 200 people threw bottles, yelled profanities and eventually assaulted police officers. 

Harner explained that strategies are tailored based on an event's history and the needs that have been identified based on what the event is, where it takes place and the kind of activity it attracts.

“With the diversity of Ocean City and the many different special events, the many different people that come to town, the day versus the night, I think our officers are highly trained and very well versed in current laws and enforcement strategy,” he said.