OCEAN CITY, Md. — There’s no shortage of big buffets and big drink specials in Ocean City, but there’s also one place that makes it a point of pride to celebrate the little things. They do it every day, marking an everyday occurrence with both drama and appreciation.
Since Fager’s Island opened in 1975, it has become a tradition to celebrate the sunset “every day, 365, rain or shine, and that’s what we do,” said owner John Fager. And the soundtrack is the same — Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
But the tradition started before there even was a Fager’s Island, in a time when it was illegal to serve alcohol on Sundays anywhere but inside your own home. The first sunset appreciation in Ocean City that was accompanied by an orchestra was held on the back porch of a home Fager used to own on 8th Street and the bay in the late 1960s.
“A bunch of our friends, we’d gather and do whatever during the day,” Fager said. “By the end of the day … a lot of friends would gather at my house on the bay. I didn’t have much else, but I had these big … speakers and a dual turntable so I started playing around with classical music with the sunset. We’d all gather there for the sunset,” he said.
“We started experimenting with various classical music to accompany that event, and then at some point someone either suggested, or we stumbled upon, I can’t remember, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture’ which ends with that whole tremendous volley of cannons and bells,” he said.
“We started just for fun, timing it so that the last of the cannon and bell banging off would be right as just the last dip of the sun disappeared on the horizon. In those days we didn’t have Siri or some way to Google sunsets, so we’d be just guessing at it. Now we can nail it exactly,” Fager said.
Years later, when Fager opened the restaurant that bears his name in midtown Ocean City, he didn’t plan on bringing his back-porch tradition to his new business. But after realizing he had basically the same view on the water, he did it every once in a while.
“And so we just started playing with that, and then people resonated with it and then, organically, it evolved into almost a religious experience, where people come here at the end of the day, no matter what time the sunset is, and gather to look at the bay, watch the sunset, take a couple of quiet moments.” Fager said. “People just kind of reflect on the day and it becomes almost a little emotional.”
On a perfect day, you’ll see the various colors bleeding into the sky and reflecting on the water. But Fager cannot stress enough that the music is just as important.
“There’s not another piece that I can think of that starts out that way, has a number of crescendos, and builds into that climax,” Fager said.
“To me, the sunset, just as that last sliver of sun disappears, is the climax of the day,” he said. “I can’t think of … another piece of music really, that would build up like that. Build, build, build, and then bang — at that last end. And just boom — and stop, just the way the sun goes and disappears.”
Fager added, “We have more people here at sunset than we have the whole rest of the day combined.”
