It’s their job to keep the party going. A look at the rally girls of Myrtle Beach Bike Week

Each year more than 300,000 bikers visit the Myrtle Beach area during Harley Week. And for the women who tend bar at Suck Bang Blow — a popular spot for the motorcyclists — it’s their job to ensure the week’s festivities are a party.

Suck Bang Blow located in Murrells Inlet hires a few dozen professional rally women — sporting everything from patriotic colors to costumes to bathing suits — each year to ensure rowdy crowds have a great time.

For the traveling bartenders, it’s more than just the money. The women who work at Suck Bang Blow come back each year to see old faces — customers and coworkers alike.

This year, the bar will have around 20 bars, two stages and more than 100 employees, according to Bill Barber, the events coordinator and former manager.

The employees go into Myrtle Beach Bike Week, which happens May 12 through 21, as if they are facing a war together, Barber said. It’s a culture of support that has been cultivated for years.

“We are a family here,” he said.

Lifelong friends made by traveling to bike rallies

Wendy Hodges, who has been a professional rally girl for about 12 years, said she looks forward to seeing the same dolled-up faces at different bike rallies.

“All of us girls are big lifelong friends, we feel like,” she said. “A lot of them, you stay in touch with, and some of them, you work different jobs together throughout the year.”

Many rally girls end up traveling throughout the U.S. to work at several different rallies such as Daytona’s bike fest, Laconia Motorcycle Week, and Galveston, Texas’ Lone Star rally.

Hodges spent her first year working at the “four corners” Suck Bang Blow location on U.S. 17 Bypass, which was torn down and replaced by a Neighborhood Walmart years ago. Now, she travels around to six rallies each year, and works as a real estate agent when she isn’t at a rally.

While the traveling bartender business has changed a lot since gaining popularity years, ago, Hodges said she was grateful to see a younger generation interested in the work.

“Now more people want to do what we do, which is good, because we’re older now, we’re about to phase ourselves out,” she said.

When rallies get going, ‘That’s when it’s go time’

It’s thanks to social media, and word of mouth, that more places and events are hiring traveling bartenders, Hodges said.

In order to make traveling bar tending worth your while, you have to learn how to balance quality and quantity, Stacey Walden, a bartender at Suck Bang Blow, said.

“Quality and quantity is what’s going to make you the most money, you know, like serving people serving them fast if need be,” she said. “And then when it slows down, be able to sit and carry a conversation with somebody.”

And when the rallies get going, the pace picks up fast.

“It goes from, you know, you might have customers hanging out during the day sometimes and then all of a sudden you look up, and it’s just people as far as you can see,” Walden said. “And that’s when it’s go time.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2023 at 6:00 AM.