OCEAN CITY – The Dew Tour’s second event in Ocean City is just around the corner as big announcements were made this week, including confirmed athletes and music performances.
Ocean City is the first stop out of three for this year’s Dew Tour, and the Pantech Beach Championships will hit Ocean City Aug. 16-19.
The new Dew Tour features three new large-scale events — Skate Legends Bowl, Skate Mega 2.0 and BMX Mega 2.0 — and includes skateboard and BMX competitions as well as a surf event and multiple music performances.
Top confirmed athletes include Baltimore native Bucky Lasek, skate vert champion Pierre-Luc Gagnon and BMX legend Jamie Bestwick.
“I’m really looking forward to coming back to my hometown to compete in the Pantech Beach Championships,” said Lasek. “The Dew Tour’s concrete bowl is second to none, and with all the great events for fans and beach atmosphere, it’s sure to be a fun time for everyone.”
According to Alli Sports, in addition to Lasek and Gagnon, the vert ramp will host Pedro Barros, Mitchie Brusco, Bob Burnquist, Sandro Dias, Tom Schaar and Elliott Sloan.
At the Mega 2.0 ramp skate, prodigy Schaar, the first person to land a 1080, as well as Brusco will compete along with Burnquist, Gagnon and Jagger Eaton.
The Dew Tour’s signature concrete skate bowl will be constructed on the beach with two competitions. Barros, Dias, Lasek, Andy Macdonald, Ben Hatchell and Nolan Munroe are among those confirmed to compete in the professional contest, while Steve Caballero and Chris Miller head up the list of skate pioneers. Additional legends will include Steve Alba, Christian Hosoi and Lance Mountain.
BMX athletes include Steve McCann and Chad Kagy who will hit the vert and Mega 2.0 ramps, while Bestwick will attempt to hold his standing as the indomitable vert competitor. Other BMX competitors are Kyle Baldock, Brett Banasiewicz, Drew Bezanson, Garrett Reynolds, Ben Wallace, 2011 Dew Cup winner Scotty Cranmer and more.
The Dew Tour also announced this week the music lineup set to perform throughout the Pantech Beach Championships, featuring nine musical acts, which is the biggest line-up in Dew Tour history with concerts throughout three days of the event.
Music genres range from electronic to hip-hop to indie rock. All performances will be free for the public to attend, with special viewing areas available to Premium Pass holders.
Socially conscious rapper/producer Lupe Fiasco will headline on Aug. 17 to close out Friday’s events. The performance will feature songs from his recent Grammy-nominated album. Up-and-coming Brooklyn rapper Theophilus London will open Friday’s show.
Saturday’s afternoon line-up features three alternative rock bands, including Rites of Ashes and The Perfects, hailing from Washington, DC and Baltimore. Indie artist Vital will wrap up the afternoon performances.
Saturday night takes a turn toward electronic dance music, featuring three evening acts headlined by Wolfgang Gartner, who is a Grammy-nominated West Coast-based DJ/producer. His set will be preceded by two young acts on the electronic dance music scene, DallasK and Two Fresh.
Concerts will begin at Thursday night’s GoDaddy Surf Expression Session on Aug. 16, with a set from RAC DJ and run through Saturday night.
On Tuesday afternoon, Chris Prybylo and Ailleen Sokol of Alli Sports were present at the Mayor and City Council meeting to give an overview of the event and site plan as construction is scheduled to begin on Monday, Aug. 6.
According to Prybylo, the venue footprint for the most part is the same with a few tweaks to alleviate concerns expressed by various Ocean City departments.
This year’s TV production has had some enhancements. Prybylo explained that this year’s event will feature Cablecam, a series of aerial cameras positioned on each corner of the site.
“Our goal is to obviously show the beach setting that we are in and create a way to do that to create that perspective that the entire time,” he said. “I think it will really add to how we can show Ocean City.”
Sokol added that this will be the first time the Dew Tour will use cablecam.
The Dew Tour Pantech Beach Championships will air live on NBC Sports Network on Friday, Aug. 17 at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday, Aug. 18 on NBC at 1 p.m. and on Sunday, Aug. 19 on NBC at 2 p.m. Additional broadcasts on NBC Sports Network will be Aug. 16 at 11 p.m., Aug. 18 at 11 p.m., Aug. 19 at 11 p.m. and Aug. 25 at midnight.
This year the Dew Tour is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. There are Premium Pass tickets for sale.
As far as addressing the large crowds a free event will attract, Prybylo said the “Dew Tour Experience”, a section of the site, will provide a live feed of the event on a jumbotron. Also, certain competition areas are open on the ocean side providing standing room.
In addition, a larger scale of performances will be taking place this year, day and night, providing different areas of entertainment for the crowds to spread out.
“The Dew Tour and Ocean City are becoming synonymous with each other and that is terrific because it is a great partnership and a great event,” Mayor Rick Meehan said.
The Dew Tour consists of three marquee events in distinct beach, city and mountain locales, featuring summer sports of skateboarding and BMX, with additional competitions of surf and freestyle motocross, and snowboard will be featured at the winter event.