MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) – More than 20,000 people attended the first Carolina Country Music Fest in Myrtle Beach June 4-7.
This week, Full House Productions President Bob Durkin presented a report about how the event went and announced plans for the festival to return in 2016 to the Myrtle Beach City Council.
Response for the three day festival was so large that organizers added a local kick-off event Thursday that drew out more than 5,000 people. Durkin says 18,000 people attended Friday night’s festivities, 20,000 on Sunday and 18,000 for the final night Sunday.
That success is what caused organizers to announce next year’s event so soon. Plans are now underway but things are in the very early stages.
“There still are some conversations that need to occur, some plans that need to be made, an actual date that needs to be set. The city doesn’t own the pavilion site so that’s not our property. They need to make arrangements to lease that, so there’s lots of pieces that still need to fall into the place.” Myrtle Beach Spokesperson Mark Kruea said.
Kruea says direct visitor spending is estimated at $5.3 million so businesses along Ocean Boulevard look forward to the festival’s return.
“It helped our business a lot. I mean a lot of people that don’t usually come down to the Boulevard came down for this stopped by our place and they saw our business for the first time which helped us reach new customers and new clientele,” Gil Reibenback owner of Tiki Bar and Grill said.
Improving the communication between local businesses is a priority to Council Members as the plans move forward.
“I think we need to figure out how to work a little bit better with the downtown business communities so that they’re a bigger part of that 4 day weekend but otherwise it went very smoothly,” Kruea said.
Businesses agree and feel having more ways to get to and from the actual concert will allow that to happen.
“Just to give access to our street a little bit with either exiting the concert at the end of the night, we could get some traffic towards us so we’re not just behind everything,” Reibenbah said.
Tickets for next year’s event will go on sale Friday and start at $139. No date has been set but Durkin says they are aiming for the first week in June.
At this point in the planning, organizers are discussing with City leaders co-sponsorship plans and potential artists to be a part of the lineup.
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