Little River Blue Crab Festival postponed, to be combined with another event
The World Famous Blue Crab Festival in Little River, which was scheduled to be held May 16-17, has been postponed because of the coronavirus and will be combined with the Little River Shrimpfest on Oct. 10-11.
“Since we already have that weekend reserved for a chamber event in Little River, we thought it would be the best dates to move to,” said Jennifer Walters, president and CEO of the Little River Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center, which operates the event.
The Blue Crab Festival is in its 39th year and is annually the biggest event in the Little River area, selling between 25,000 and 30,000 entrance tickets per year, with many customers coming from outside the market, according to Walters.
The Shrimpfest event will be held for the 16th consecutive year, and this year will be called the Little River Blue Crab and Shrimpfest.
The chamber hosted a meeting Wednesday to discuss its future with other stakeholders, including Horry County councilman Harold Worley, state representative William Bailey, state senator Greg Hembree, Larry O’Donohue of Anderson Insurance, two officers from Horry County Police, and the chamber board of directors, which consists a myriad of leaders in the Little River community.
The meeting also included advice from Randy Webster, Horry County assistant administrator for public safety, who assigns special event permits.
“The safety of our community is our utmost priority,” Walters said. “We did exhaust all avenues, whether to postpone to June, but that might be a little too aggressive and ambitious, and we know a lot of other events have been postponed to September, and it was just getting a little crazy and hectic at that time.
“We have to take into consideration how the police and sheriff can help us maintain the safety of our events … and I just would hate to overwhelm the resources that are already working so hard for us.”
Horry County has had 150 confirmed cases of COVID-19. In South Carolina, confirmed cases grew by 105 Wednesday to a total of 3,656, and there have been 107 deaths statewide due to the virus.
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 3:28 PM.
