'It Just Isn't Ready Yet': Pharrell Williams Postpones Something In The Water

2022 Something In The Water Music Festival — Pharrell performs at the 2022 Something in the Water Music Festival on Independence Avenue on June 18, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

Hours after the locals-only presale began, Virginia Beach’s Something In The Water festival was postponed from its planned October dates to April 2025.

On Instagram Sept. 13, festival founder and organizer Pharrell Williams wrote “Virginia doesn’t deserve better, Virginia deserves THE BEST. So SOMETHING IN THE WATER has to match that. It just isn’t ready yet.”

Originally scheduled for Oct. 12-13 at the Veterans Home Loans Amphitheater, Something In The Water had yet to announce a final lineup. Williams started the festival in 2019 with a lineup that included Travis Scott, Missy Elliott, Migos and Pusha T. The 2020 and 2021 festivals were canceled due to the COVID pandemic. In 2022, Williams moved the festival from Virginia Beach to Washington, D.C., due to ongoing tension with his hometown after his cousin was shot and killed by Virginia Beach Police in March 2021. Last year, the festival returned to Virginia Beach but the third day was canceled due to weather, which prompted Williams to move it from its traditional April weekend to October for 2024. Now it seems it will move back to April for 2025.

Hotels told local television station WTKR they had been anticipating full houses for the weekend and had begun staffing up for the expected late-season surge.