Jack Johnson, Alanis Morissette, John Mayer, Lumineers headlining Oceans Calling Festival

Lineup announced Tuesday

The organizers of Ocean City’s upcoming Oceans Calling Festival are rebounding strong from last year’s cancelation with headliners Jack Johnson, Alanis Morissette, John Mayer and The Lumineers anchoring a lineup flush with other big-name artists.

“There’s a little bit of everything for everyone,” Promoter C3 Presents President Tim Sweetwood said after announcing the full lineup live on Ocean 98 radio Tuesday.

Along with the headliners, bands and singers including Third Eye Blind, Incubus, Weezer, Sheryl Crow, The Wallflowers, Gin Blossoms, Grace Potter, Dirty Heads, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Noah Kahan, Jimmy Eat World, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, O.A.R. and more are set to perform throughout the three-day music event set Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 on the inlet and beach downtown.

The festival will also feature vendors for souvenirs, drinks and food, including presentations by acclaimed chefs Robert Irvine and Amanda Freitag, with Jason Biggs of “American Pie” movie franchise fame serving as host.

Tom Perlozzo, the city government’s director of business development, and Communications and Marketing Director Jessica Waters joined Sweetwood, Ocean 98 host David “Bulldog” Rothner and others on the live broadcast, which was full of oohs, aahs, cheering and gasps as Sweetwood rattled off the full list.

Tickets for Oceans Calling, which is expected to draw a crowd of 35,000 to 50,000 attendees per day to the downtown venue, went on pre-sale Thursday for anyone who signed up in advance. Sweetwood advised people to log on early to get tickets, as excitement has been brewing ever since the cancelation of what was supposed to be the first installment of the event last year.

Last year’s festival, scheduled for the same weekend, was canceled a day before the first acts were set to go on stage due to a nor’easter moving up the coast. Oceans Calling 2022 would have featured headliners Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds and The Lumineers, with a host of other bands and singers of varying styles, genres and fame rounding out the lineup.

Perlozzo said Tuesday that attendees were set to come to last year’s event from all over the country, and he expects a similar response for this year’s festival.

“We monitored social media quite a bit and what we saw was folks that hadn’t come to Ocean City before, from the West Coast, Central U.S., all coming to Ocean City,” Perlozzo said. “And that’s a tribute, I guess, to the success that Tim and C3 have put together over the years and we’re … lucky to be a part of it.”

C3 Presents, known for hosting numerous music events including Lollapalooza, the Innings festivals in Florida and Arizona, Sea. Hear. Now. in New Jersey, and dozens more, is the brainchild behind Oceans Calling.

Leading up to Tuesday’s announcement, people were speculating through numerous channels and mediums about the potential Oceans Calling lineup, which ultimately included many of the same acts as those performing at C3’s other events.

Perlozzo also said last week that the promoters put millions more into the entertainment lineup compared to last year to ensure this year’s festival is as good as possible.

This story appears in the March 17, 2023 print edition of the OC Today.