MARION, SC (WBTW) – The newly renovated Swamp Fox Entertainment Complex in Marion will kick off its Biker Bash event for the second year on Friday.
Thursday, they celebrated a kickoff party to commemorate the event.
However, before the party vendors and workers spent all day preparing for the upcoming biker bash.
Bob Hartmann, the owner of the Swamp Fox Entertainment Complex, rode through the gated area in his golf cart talking about his vision for the place.
“We’ve added a ferris wheel here which a LED ferris wheel. We got a performance shop down that’s going to be down here. Got a new bar and restaurant that we are building right now, which is really terrific,” he said laughing.
This will be the Sturgis of the east. Failure is not an option for us here. We know it’s going to take some time for us to build this facility,” Hartmann later mentioned.
Nearly, 9 months after purchasing the once empty 250-acre lot back in 2014, last year’s initial biker bash didn’t go exactly as planned.
The event was met with technical problems, bad weather and lower turnout than expected.
“We started out, we have some problems in the beginning of the get go. You know we got a better feel for the property. We understand the land a little bit better. We understand the community a little bit better,” acknowledged Hartmann.
However, he says the complex has made strides in recent weeks from adding more vendors to construction of a new restaurant on site.
There will be more than 60 vendors throughout the week.
“The people who have stayed on property in the past few days, they get it. They see it and they all just amazed with what’s happened in a short period of time,” explained Hartmann.
The biker bash will start Friday May 13th and end on Sunday May 22nd.
Hartmann says the complex will be open throughout the year. For more information on other events, click here.
