But next year the festival will not take place in Virginia Beach due to what Pharrell has stated as “toxic energy” from city officials. Earlier this year, Pharrell’s cousin was shot and killed by Virginia Beach police officers. This and another shooting in 2019 prompted Pharrell to write a letter to Virginia Beach City Manager Patrick Duhaney. “I love my city,” he wrote, “but for far too long it has been run by and with toxic energy. The toxic energy that changed the narrative several times around the homicide of my cousin, Donovan Lynch, a citizen of Virginia, is the same toxic energy that changed the narrative around the mass murder and senseless loss of life at Building Number 2…
Pharrell’s cousin Donovan Lynch was killed in March, he was 25-year-old. Police claim that Lynch was “brandishing” a weapon, but his family claim that he was the owner of a licensed firearm. During a celebration of life for Lynch, Pharrell talked about the misinformation from the police. “Virginia Beach you need to talk. Talk about your issues, talk about your struggles so we can get past them. The misinformation, the mischaracterizations and — forgive me — but it took the mayor a week to reach out [to] this family.”
During its debut in 2019, Something in The Water brought in $24 million to the city of Virginia Beach.