TidalWave country music festival kicks off in Atlantic City, New Jersey

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (WPVI) -- A new country music festival kicked off Friday in Atlantic City, New Jersey and thousands of concertgoers are expected throughout the weekend.

Final preparations and sound checks were made on the beach in hopes the new event would debut smoothly as the summer season winds down.

"We want one last roar on the shore. And that's what TidalWave is," said Brian O'Connell, president of Live Nation Country Touring.

About 25,000 people are expected for the three-day festival, which is headlined by Luke Bryan, Morgan Wallen and Dierks Bentley. It follows a well-attended Phish concert last weekend in the same location.

Officials are hoping this will be an annual event.

"It certainly has a huge impact for all of the hotels and casinos here in the city as well as all of our restaurants," said Sean Patwell, president of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. "So it's an extremely important economic driver for the city."

Cities up and down the shore are seeing high demand for things to do.

At AAAA bike shop in Ventnor, it's been a busy summer like last year.

"We check our computers and we see new and old customers and it's about 50/50. So that's a pretty strong increase over years gone by," said owner Michael Weisen.

Next door, Willow's Way Shore Treats has seen plenty of demand for its homemade ice cream and color-changing spoons and cups.

But owner Ralph Pappas says they're faced with staffing challenges, especially with workers going back to college.

"It's just something that naturally comes with being a shore business. So we're used to it so we just adapt and pivot," said Pappas.

He says the shop has had to adjust hours based on staffing, and asks customers to be patient.