Carolina Country Music Fest organizers could receive $35,000 Myrtle Beach grant
The Myrtle Beach city manager has postponed a vote that could have given the Charlotte-based organizers of a three-day music festival $35,000 of taxpayer dollars – something rarely done – saying he needed more information about what event coordinators expect of the city.
City officials have said they know little about Full House Productions, which is producing the Carolina Country Music Fest featuring 35 national, regional and local acts June 5-7 in downtown Myrtle Beach. City Manager John Pedersen said he wanted to know more about the specifics of any agreement with Full House before moving forward.
Myrtle Beach City Council on Tuesday was expected to consider a resolution to grant $35,000 from the general fund to the festival, but Pedersen said that resolution now likely will be discussed at the Feb. 24 meeting.
“I haven’t seen the specific request [of what Full House wants] and I haven’t met with the promoters,” he said. “I don’t think I have a complete handle on everything that they were expecting from us.”
Pedersen said in addition to the $35,000, which Full House representatives have said will be used for radio marketing, the organizers also were seeking city co-sponsorship that could include some use of city resources such as police and litter pickup. A co-sponsorship also would allow the city to promote the event.
Full House Productions announced Jan. 22 that Lady Antebellum, Eric Church, Hunter Hayes and Big & Rich will headline the event. Three to five more national acts are expected to be announced Tuesday. Organizers said they have sold out of pre-sale tickets, but a representative was unable to say exactly how many tickets had to be sold to sell out.
Pedersen said the group could get money from the city because the festival is expected to bring thousands of music fans to the area who would spend money at hotels and restaurants while here.
But officials said they don’t know much about Full House and its reputation.
“I don’t have any direct information on the group,” Pedersen said.
Full House says the Myrtle Beach festival is the biggest event it has produced since forming. It registered as a for-profit business with the N.C. Secretary of State in 2001.
The Charlotte company annually organizes the Grave Diggers Ball in Charlotte around Halloween, which has featured artists such as Backstreet Boys, Flo Rida and Katy Perry, said Jessica Penney with Whirlwind Creative marketing company, which represents Full House.
Penney said the company has hosted events across the country but could not be reached Thursday when asked for the specific cities events had been held.
The company’s website was under construction as of Thursday and an Internet search only found several Charlotte events linked to Full House. Information that appeared on the music festival website early last week said Full House has produced 500 events in a dozen states. That information no longer could be found on the festival’s website on Thursday.
Full House also provides marketing services for restaurants and bars including Blackfin Ameripub, Libretto’s Pizzeria and Whiskey River nightclub, according to the company’s LinkedIn profile.
Pedersen referred questions on the company’s reputation to Amie Lee of Palmetto Event Productions, who is the local organizer for the festival. Lee could not be reached last week.
“I trust that as we walk down that partnership line, if that’s what we do, we’ll do our due diligence in the underwriting process,” Councilman Wayne Gray said.
Pedersen said he is not concerned that Full House is not a local business and has not hosted any events on the Grand Strand.
“We’re looking at this as, ‘What does this event do for the city?’” he said. “And this event brings a huge number of people to the city. ... This event will bring thousands of people for an extended number of days and mostly from out-of-market areas.”
Full House requested $35,000 from the city’s Accommodations Tax Committee during the committee’s November and December process but the committee did not recommend any funding at the time.
“At the time they made the application they didn’t have any signed documents,” committee chairwoman Mary Henry said. “We probably would have made a recommendation knowing what we know now, but we didn’t have that amount of information then.
“We were trying to be a good steward of tax dollars for the community and we look at things very critically,” she said.
Gray said due to the scope of the event, based on information the city has now, and the publicity it would bring Myrtle Beach, the city could consider granting them the money from the general fund.
Gray said one of Full House’s executives previously worked with Live Nation, a live-events company based in California that focuses on concert promotions.
The Carolina Country Music Fest will take place on the former Myrtle Beach Pavilion property between Kings Highway and the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and between Eighth and Ninth avenues North. Festival times are not yet available.
City Council does not frequently give general fund money to non-city events that have not received a recommendation through the Accommodations Tax Committee.
City spokesman Mark Kruea said the city gave grants of about $250,000 from the general fund to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce when the Democratic and Republican presidential debates were held in town in 2008 and 2012. The chamber coordinated the events.
“[The city] gave that money because of the national exposure it would bring to the community and the country music festival certainly rises to that level,” Kruea said.
A chamber study found that the Jan. 16, 2012, Republican presidential debate yielded an economic impact of about $14.4 million. City officials are unable to say what type of economic impact the festival would produce.
Selling out of early bird tickets
Full House president Bob Durkin told City Council it took less than a week to sell out of pre-sale tickets for the festival, with attendees coming from as far away as England.
“We are thrilled with the overwhelming response,” Durkin said in an email to The Sun News. “To sell out of pre-sale and early bird three-day general admission tickets proves that country music fans are excited, and agree that Myrtle Beach is the perfect location for the Carolina Country Music Festival.”
Pre-sale tickets – $159 for the three days – sold out in 48 hours and $169 early bird tickets sold out within the first week, Penney said. General admission tickets are $189 for the three-day festival and single-day tickets will not be sold, she said.
Penney said she is unable to say exactly how many tickets have been sold so far.
“It’s a moving target for the number of tickets sold,” she said. “I know that they’re anticipating between [25,000] and 30,000 attendees per day.”
She said she couldn’t say whether 20 pre-sale tickets or 1,000 pre-sale tickets were available for purchase.
“I cannot tell you how many tickets have been sold,” she said.
Penney said vendor space and VIP sales have to be taken into consideration, as well as working with Myrtle Beach to determine how many people can safely fit on the 10-acre area where the festival will be held, make it difficult to say how many tickets will be sold overall.
Pedersen said the city will look into the number of people that can safely fit in the area.
This story was originally published February 7, 2015 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Carolina Country Music Fest organizers could receive $35,000 Myrtle Beach grant."