Dick Franyo, the longtime owner of Boatyard Bar & Grill, is once again steering Annapolis' biggest Parrothead party toward its 21st year. The Boatyard Beach Bash returns to the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park on September 19, promising six hours of live music, an open bar, Boatyard food, and a brand-new raw and grilled oyster bar for the 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. festival.
General admission tickets run $150, while VIP “Very Important Parrothead” passes cost $250 for the day-long event, according to Eye On Annapolis. This year's lineup features Coral Reefer Band members Doyle Grisham and Nadirah Shakoor performing alongside John Frinzi, the Floating Collective Band, and the Peter Mayer Band. As Eye On Annapolis notes, the Beach Bash typically sells out, and tickets remain limited this year as well.
Franyo has a personal connection with Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band, and the outlet reports that musicians performing at the event remain available throughout the day to meet guests and swap stories about life on the road with Buffett. Every ticket sold supports the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park and its educational work, the report adds, and over the years the Beach Bash has raised $1.7 million to support the museum and its programs for young people.
A Fundraiser Born From Storm Recovery
The Beach Bash didn't start as a party — it began as a rescue mission. The event originated as a way to help the Annapolis Maritime Museum recover after Tropical Storm Isabel, per the same account from Eye On Annapolis. When Hurricane Isabel struck Annapolis in September 2003, an eight-foot tidal surge flooded the museum's McNasby building, causing severe damage to the drywall, floors, and electrical systems inside, according to Wikipedia.
Following years of post-storm fundraising and structural repairs, the museum reopened its fully restored McNasby Oyster Company building in December 2008 as a permanent exhibition and education space, according to Voices of the Chesapeake Bay. That historic building, founded in 1886 by William McNasby Sr. in Eastport, remains the last surviving commercial oyster-packing plant in Annapolis, per the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park.
Education Funded, Owner's New Business Partner
Today, the museum's Education Center serves more than 12,000 students and adults annually through hands-on Chesapeake Bay ecology and stewardship programs, according to the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park. That reach extends across two waterfront campuses, including the 12-acre Ellen O. Moyer Nature Park on Back Creek, which hosts outdoor classrooms, walking trails, and public docks used for community programming and summer camps, as previously reported by Hoodline.
Franyo, who spent 30 years as a Wall Street investment banker and managing director with Alex. Brown & Sons and Deutsche Bank before opening Boatyard Bar & Grill in October 2001, has kept his hand firmly on the Beach Bash even as his restaurant's ownership structure has shifted. In February 2026, a new ownership arrangement was set to take effect after the 81-year-old founder sought a partner to preserve the venue's long-term legacy, though Franyo remains actively involved in operations, as Hoodline previously reported.
The corporate shift at Boatyard was intended to leave the Boatyard experience unchanged. All net proceeds from the Beach Bash go directly to the museum's youth environmental education programs, according to the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park. The museum was also recently designated one of 50 stops on Anne Arundel County's Be Revolutionary: America 250 Exploration Trail mobile pass, a countywide heritage initiative Hoodline covered in August.
