OCEAN CITY, Md. - Ocean City is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sunfest this weekend, marking five decades of one of the East Coast’s most popular end-of-summer festivals.
Running from Thursday, Oct. 23 through Sunday, Oct. 26, the Inlet Parking Lot has been transformed into a festival ground filled with live music, local vendors, and family fun.
Thousands of visitors are enjoying the milestone celebration.
Thousands of visitors are enjoying the milestone celebration, including Steve and Gina Sullivan, who have been attending for decades.
“We've been coming for a really long time. Probably close to 40 years,” Steve Sullivan said. “We love all the vendors. We love the food. We like the entertainment. We like walking around and talking to people.”
The four-day event features live entertainment, hundreds of arts and crafts vendors, food and drink options, and Ocean City traditions like the Halloween Beach Maze, Howl-O-Ween Pet Parade, Great Pumpkin Race, bonfires on the beach, and the Delmarva Dock Dogs competition.
Thousands of visitors are enjoying the milestone celebration.
Special event manager for the Town of Ocean City, Brenda Moore, says the celebration has grown far beyond what organizers first envisioned.
“This was a small little event that the locals began 50 years ago to kind of extend the season,” Moore said. “It was originally called ‘Save Six for September,’ and it grew and grew — and so did our season. Now we are all the way to the late October time span.”
While crowds enjoy the music, food, and shopping, vendors are also seeing a boost in business. For Joe and Rosemary Brewer, however, their work means more than just sales. The couple specializes in hand-painted pet portraits — and once took on a special request to paint a man alongside his dog.
The couple specializes in hand-painted pet portraits — and once took on a special request to paint a man alongside his dog.
“He gets real serious and he pulls out that picture of him and his dog, and he goes, if you could do this, it would mean a lot to me,” Joe Brewer said. “This dog that he had was a puppy, only lived a year and a half and got a disease and died. So I ended up caving in and doing it. It’s very emotional.”
From art and music to food and friendship, Sunfest continues to capture the spirit of Ocean City.