Local law enforcement agencies say they’re ready to handle the influx of massive crowds for this weekend’s Oceans Calling music festival.
While a private security detail from concert promoter C3 Presents will be working inside the concert footprint along Ocean City’s Boardwalk, a cadre of Ocean City police officers will have their own high-visibility presence downtown, according to OCPD Chief Ray Austin. He said both teams will be in constant contact.
“It frees up manpower for us, so we’re able to effectively police the entire community without straining our resources down to one event,” he said. “We are accustomed to dealing with a lot of people. Our officers are very professional, and they know how to handle these types of crowds.”
Police said Oceans Calling, now in its third year, as well as next weekend’s Country Calling event, generally have brought laid-back guests to the resort who aren’t creating too many headaches for law enforcement. About 55,000 ticketholders are expected.
“From past experience, this isn’t like some of our motor events and the issues we’ve had in the past. This is a good crowd that comes in. It’s just really moving, getting people from point A to point B, from the venue back to their vehicles and really managing the traffic – foot traffic and vehicular traffic,” Austin said.
I don’t know about anyone else who is local, but by the time mid September rolls around I’ve had enough of our visitors.
AMEN!!!!