Springfest crowds reach pre-covid numbers

By Hunter Hine Staff Writer

(May 12, 2023) By nearly all markers, Springfest was a big success.

“Compared to last year, we are extremely ecstatic given that we had all four days of an event,” Frank Miller, special events director for Ocean City said, in reference to last year’s event closing for a storm just halfway through the weekend.

Although the city doesn’t track attendance like it did before covid, Miller said the crowd density was comparable to 2018 or 2019.

“That would put me somewhere in the neighborhood of 120,000130,000 people,” Miller said.

Saturday drew the largest crowds, per-usual, but Miller suspects that cold winds coming from the east off the ocean kept Friday crowds uncharacteristically low, and also affected Thursday.

Opening day attracted the expected vendor-centric shoppers that organizers have seen in years past, Miller said.

“Saturday covered the loss on Fri- day. It picked up substantially,” Miller said.

Usually, long lines for food vendors typically last between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., Miller said. The fact that food lines endured from 10 a.m. to the late afternoon served as a good indicator of Saturday’s success, he said.

When it came to music, the variety of genres represented appealed to a larger base spanning different generations, Miller said.

Shadows of the 60’s, the opening headliner, had requests for a return next year among the older crowd, Miller said.

On Friday night, tickets for Collective Soul sold out, which Miller thought was playing more into the Gen X audience.

Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives had a smaller crowd than anticipated, but the people who did show up had an amazing time, Miller said.

“I think our music, mix of music, how we dispersed the different genres of music across four days was a posi-

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