‘The show must go on’: How Carolina Country Music Fest fans reacted to a wetter event

“The show must go on.”

That was Columbia resident Leah Galluzzi’s response to Saturday’s temporary closure and evacuation of Carolina Country Music Fest because of lightning.

“We walked in and they were like ‘we’re closing it for a couple hours,’ and we were like ‘well, we’ll find something else to do, but we’ll be back,” said Sarah Anderson, a Pennsylvania resident who accompanied Galluzzi to the music festival. “They’ll open. They will reopen.”

Indeed, it did after a delay of an hour or so. The break, however, just meant more time for Galluzzi and Anderson to hang out at The Bowery, where one of the bands they were in town to see, Alabama, got its start.

Myrtle Beach police announced around 2:30 p.m. Saturday that the event grounds were going to be temporarily closed and festival goers had to leave the scene for safety precautions — a first-time instance for the event. Police announced around 3:40 p.m. an “all clear,” signaling the concerts and party could start back up.

Through Sunday evening that temporary closure was the only major impact from Mother Nature. For some festival goers, this year’s event was just a little more wet than others.

“It really didn’t matter to us,” said Jennifer Bergeron, who was in town with fellow Sunset Beach, North Carolina resident Jax Hutnik. “We live at the beach so rain, humidity, it doesn’t really matter.”

Rain began coming down again following the temporary closure Saturday, but the festival went on the rest of the night without another lightning interruption. On Sunday afternoon, it was mostly clear, though showers and storms were forecast to possibly return in the night portion of the event.

Jeff and Jamie Ramsey of North Myrtle Beach said they encountered some rain while at the festival, but all in all it was no big deal.

“It was OK. We just wore our ponchos and went on,” Jamie Ramsey said, with Jeff adding that “it didn’t matter.”

Being local, the rainy forecast didn’t serve as much of a deterrent for the couple.

“We were gonna come anyway whether it rained or not, but we were just hoping for it to clear up,” Jamie Ramsey said.

For those traveling in from out of town, like Galluzzi and Anderson, there was a bit of finger crossing that Mother Nature wouldn’t interrupt too much of the festival.

“We were kind of sad, but I feel like at the same time it’s like what can be better than country music outside?” Galluzzi said of learning the forecast ahead of time. “Even if it rains, we’re still going to have a good time.”

Bergeron and Hutnik said they were most excited to see Alabama and Thomas Rhett, while Galluzzi and Anderson were most psyched for Florida Georgia Line and Rhett.

Anderson noted that even the lesser-known artists caught her attention. She did, however, feel like the festival is missing one thing.

“I think even the upcoming artists are like — they surprise you,” she said. “But I will say they need a female headliner. That is one thing I’ve been saying over and over again.”

Overall, though, the ambiance — rain and all this year — is what makes the event memorable, Galluzzi said.

“I would say it’s just like a tradition at this point,” she said of the event, which is in its fifth year. “Like, it doesn’t really matter who plays, it’s just the experience and it’s fun.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2019 at 5:14 PM.