Carolina Country Music Fest will draw thousands. That’s good and bad for nearby businesses
The Myrtle Beach Carolina Country Music Fest starts on Thursday, June 9 and is expected to bring thousands of country music lovers to our area. In fact, the Myrtle Beach Police Department’s traffic plan was designed to accommodate tens of thousands of people.
With this expected influx of visitors, businesses around 812 North Ocean Boulevard, where the event will take place, are preparing for a drastic change in the amount of customers they may see over the coming weekend.
This drastic change, however, may or may not be in these businesses’ favor. In other words, the country music event will bring a tremendous amount of customers to businesses that are super close to the venue, but for businesses even just a street or two away, it is possible that less customers than usual may enter their doors.
Michelle Strickland, an employee at the Boardwalk Coffee House,said that the Carolina Country Music Fest can bring newcomers in the doors but that it can also hurt business somewhat.
“It takes away some of our regulars and makes it hard for them to park and get here,” she said.
Some businesses in the area are excited for all of the country fans to come to town.
“It’s definitely our best week. We’re definitely excited for it, always are,” Colleen Yeckley, a bartender at Ocean Front Bar and Grille, said. “We dress for all the themes, we get all excited, and we are definitely excited.”
Other businesses that are not in the green zone are not looking forward to possibly losing customers as a result of the festival.
“It hurts us because of all the food trucks and so they already got food over there and people are paying for a ticket. Everybody that is eating [at the event] is not going to come back here and buy from us so business kind of slows down,” said Hassan Foukalle, an employee at The Pop Shop, which is located just outside of the green zone in the picture.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
