Could COVID’s delta variant sink a second year of SC’s popular shag dance festival?
As the delta variant of COVID-19 surges in Horry County and across South Carolina, Jason Cadier worries that this fall could be a repeat of last year.
Cadier works as an audio engineer for concerts and other live shows, and regularly works at the North Myrtle Beach clubs famous for shag dancing. Last year, even though the official Fall Migration shag dancing festival was called off, Cadier watched as throngs of people gathered in North Myrtle Beach clubs for concerts and other events part of an unofficial shag festival.
Ultimately, nearly two dozen attendees contracted COVID-19 after attending the unofficial festival, and five people died, including well-known shag dancing instructor Jeppy McDowell. Shag dancing, also known as the Carolina Shag, is a style of swing dance popularized in the mid-20th century, originating in North Myrtle Beach area, among other places in North and South Carolina. The dance is popular with older Americans.
Cadier said he’s seen similar scenes of close contact and few masks, as well as people saying they don’t want to take the COVID-19 vaccine, at the shag dancing clubs this summer as he did last fall.
“The problem is that this demographic isn’t taking the vaccine,” he said. “They’re saying its an experimental drug and they don’t trust the government.”
In Horry County, according to state data, about 115,000 residents aged 55 and older have gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while around 62,000 residents under 54 and under have gotten at least one dose. South Carolina has one of the lower vaccination rates in the country, with about 52% of eligible residents getting a shot. Shag dancers tend to be older Americans.
It’s these factors that are leading the organizers of the shag dancing festivals, the Society of Stranders, to be uncertain about if the flagship Carolina shag event will be called off again this year.
Some club owners, too, the ones who host many of the events that shag dancers attend, are approaching the fall cautiously. Others say they won’t let the delta variant slow down their business again.
Ronnie Gregory, the board chairman of Society of Stranders, said the organization would like to have its fall migration festival this year, but would call it off if the delta variant continues to surge.
“That’s a hard question. We certainly want it to happen, we want it to get better. It’s questions we’ll be forced to answer,” he said. “We’re kind of at that point now where we’re monitoring the situation closely.”
Gregory, along with Association of Carolina Shag Clubs Robin Morely, said they’re monitoring COVID-19 case data closely and will make a decision about whether or not to have the fall event in coming weeks. If the event does happen, Morely said, organizers will urge caution.
“I think one thing we’ll do is if we do have it we’ll come out with a strong statement saying, ‘Wear a mask.’”
As tourists returned to North Myrtle Beach this summer, hundreds of people have gotten sick. Data from the South Carolina Dept. of Health and Environmental Control shows that 234 people in the North Myrtle Beach area have tested positive for COVID-19 between Memorial Day weekend and the present. And across Horry County, the virus is surging, with hundreds testing positive each week over the past month.
Horry County has reported more than 1,752 coronavirus cases in the last seven days, a 64% increase from the previous week, according to data from the CDC. Coronavirus hospitalizations have also spiked, an “eerie” comparison to the stats from last summer when the virus was surging, one local doctor said. In the past two weeks, 1,829 people in Horry County have tested positive, according to DHEC data. The CDC has labeled transmission of COVID-19 in Horry County as “high.”
The Delta variant, which is highly transmissible and responsible for the majority of cases across the country, is likely the dominant strain of the virus in South Carolina, state health officials say. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control tests random cases for the variant in order to estimate its spread, but not every positive test is categorized by variant. Individual hospitals generally don’t have the ability to test for the variants of the coronavirus.
“We are very concerned,” Gregory said. “Our biggest factor is that our group is older, that puts them in more danger. It will always weigh heavy because of the age that a lot of our people are.”
Will Fall Migration shag festival happen?
Both Gregory and Morely said they plan to monitor North Myrtle Beach city rules as well as COVID-19 data to determine, by early September, if the Fall Migration shag festival will happen. Working with local clubs, including Duck’s Night Life, Fat Harold’s, Harold’s On The Ocean, OD Pavilion and others, the organizers work to bring shag dancers from across the Carolinas and elsewhere to downtown North Myrtle Beach for a week of drinking, dancing and concerts by popular beach music bands like Gary Lowder & Smokin’ Hot.
Last year, the organizers called off the fall migration festival due to COVID-19. But several clubs, including Duck’s, advertised a separate event, called Shaggin’ On Main, enticing dancers to come to North Myrtle Beach anyway. Dancers did, and the virus spread among attendees. Several died in the weeks after the event. Dwayne Porter, the owner of Duck’s, said at the time that Shaggin’ On Main had received the necessary permits from the state, and screened patrons’ temperatures before they entered his club.
Both Gregory and Morely said that if it appears that the delta variant is spreading too widely, they may have to consider calling off the event. The June shag dancing event went on as planned, before the delta variant began its rapid spread around the Grand Strand. Gregory said part of their calculation for having the fall event will be what local officials advise.
“We’re in contact with them anytime we make decisions like that,” he said. “What happened in the past, they went on with it, they had some flare ups, and thank goodness we didn’t have it then.”
Morely said that she didn’t want to encourage anyone to get the vaccine because she believes it’s a personal choice whether or not someone gets it, but said that organizers would encourage dancers to take all precautions if the event does happen and people do choose to travel.
“A lot of our people have already been vaccinated,” she said. “We encourage everyone to do what’s comfortable for them.”
North Myrtle Beach businesses react
Nearly a year since the COVID-19 outbreak following Shaggin’ On Main, Porter said he had no regrets about staying open last year, and said he plans to stay open this year, too. Even if organizers cancel the official Fall Migration, he said he’ll continue to host bands and events and encourage dancers to come out.
Porter said he takes extra cautions to clean and sanitize his club regularly and said patrons should wear a mask if they feel comfortable doing so. Beyond that, he said, he’s within his rights to stay open as a business.
“I own a company, I own a business, I’m not playing the politics,” he said. “If people don’t want to come, stay home. Last year they said I killed people which is a bunch of BS.”
Porter said he doesn’t want anyone to get sick, but said he thinks COVID-19 isn’t going away any time soon and that people and the country as a whole need to “move on.”
“If people would learn to live and learn to live for their damn selves, this country would be in a better place,” Porter said. “If SOS cancels, I’m open. I’m open until the governor shuts me down. It’s my prerogative to stay open.”
Other North Myrtle Beach club owners said they’d like to stay open, too, but were proceeding cautiously.
Horry County Council member Harold Worley, who owns Fat Harold’s and other clubs where shag dancing is popular, said his clubs are currently open but said he’d ensure that customers were kept safe if the shag festival happens and the delta variant continues to spread.
Worley’s clubs were closed last year as a precaution, and only re-opened this year. He noted that the fall migration shag event can make up as much as 10% of a club’s bottom line because of how many people attend. He said his clubs likely won’t close down again, but that they’d take precautions.
“Right now it’s business as usual. We’re open like everyone else (but) we’re keeping an eye on it,” he said. “We won’t be (closing, but) we will do what’s necessary to keep our customers safe, whatever that is.”
Even if SOS cancels the Fall Migration, Worley said, people are still likely to attend, as they did last year, in part because they have hotel and condo reservations that they may not be able to get refunded. He said he encourages people to get vaccinated, and to wear a mask if they’re comfortable with it.
“It’s going to be a day-to-day basis how people react to it,” he said.
A 2020 repeat?
Cadier said he predicts that the fall shag dancing festival will happen one way or another, be it the official event or a spin off like last year. He said he doesn’t think businesses could take two years in a row of losing out on a significant event. Cadier was one of the people who contracted COVID-19 after last year’s Shaggin’ On Main event, and said he’s since gotten the vaccine.
His wish, he said, is that clubs would require customers to be vaccinated or to wear a mask before they enter for a concert or other club event, as he sees happen at larger venues in the region.
But, he said, clubs in North Myrtle Beach are unlikely to make such stringent demands of their customers. He said he’s worked at shows at North Myrtle Beach shag clubs recently and didn’t see customers wearing masks. “Why would they change their methodology now?” he asked.
“The prudent thing to do is to take the vaccine and go on with your day,” he said. His prognosis for this fall is grim: “Will it be a repeat of last year? Damn right, especially with this delta variant.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 2:12 PM.
