How Myrtle Beach will be part of Hootie & The Blowfish’s first concert tour in a decade
Hootie & The Blowfish is going on its first significant concert tour in more than a decade, and Myrtle Beach will be along for the ride.
A coalition of stakeholders in the Myrtle Beach tourism community have partnered to become an official sponsor of the Columbia-born band’s “Group Therapy Tour” this summer.
As part of the sponsorship, Myrtle Beach will have a presence at all 47 North American tour stops, and band members will be part of Myrtle Beach’s marketing efforts for the summer and fall seasons.
The band is scheduled to be up and down the Grand Strand on Thursday to film promotional videos that will feature the band’s music and be used for television commercials, social media and digital advertising.
A promotional video will also be played on jumbo screens at concerts a few minutes before the band takes the stage.
Golf Tourism Solutions — a marketing and technology agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach Market — the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, Myrtle Beach International Airport and South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism are collaborating to sponsor the tour.
The Group Therapy Tour begins May 30 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. There are 47 shows scheduled in the U.S. and Canada through Sept. 13, followed by eight dates in October throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The band is generally playing amphitheaters, fairgrounds and arenas, including back-to-back shows at Madison Square Garden and three consecutive shows at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia to conclude the North American portion of the tour.
Twenty-nine of the tour cities have nonstop air service to Myrtle Beach, and Myrtle Beach tourism officials plan to accompany the band to many shows for meetings and additional promotions in those markets. Access to tickets is included in the sponsorship so there are promotions for tickets in key markets.
“There are a lot of tentacles with this and we’re going to take advantage of every one,” said Bill Golden, Golf Tourism Solutions chief executive officer.
The band also has its sixth studio album and first in nearly 15 years forthcoming under a new record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville. The band performed on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” last Wednesday.
The tour comes on the 25th anniversary of the band’s debut album, “Cracked Rear View,” which remains among the 10 best-selling albums of all time.
Tickets for the tour are on sale at Hootie.com and are already rapidly selling.
Hootie & The Blowfish has long had an affiliation with and affinity for Myrtle Beach.
The band’s members — singer Darius Rucker, guitarist Mark Bryan, bassist Dean Felber and drummer Jim Sonefeld — regularly played golf and shows on the Grand Strand in the 1980s and early ’90s and returned in 2003 with their huge fundraising event, the Hootie & The Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am.
The event, held annually at Barefoot Resort’s Dye Club and the House of Blues, has raised more than $7 million for children’s educational and golf programs through the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation, and the event has sold out with more than 6,000 spectators for 13 consecutive years.
As a result of the band’s philanthropic efforts, it was enshrined in the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame in February.
Bryan was one of four cast members of the Golf Channel reality-type show “Road Trip: Myrtle Beach” in 2008 and was a guest on Golf Channel’s 30-minute “Golf Advisor Round Trip” travel show that featured the Grand Strand in an episode that premiered last November.
“Obviously the band is very well-known, they are relatable, they all love golf, and they’re tied to the coast, in particular the Grand Strand area,” Golden said. “So you tie all that together and we feel this will give us a chance to really make a significant impact from a marketing standpoint for summer and fall.”
The band members reminisced following their HOF induction about playing shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s at large and small now-closed Myrtle Beach clubs, including the Purple Gator and Apple Annies before the release of their first album.
“When you think about the late ’80s and early ’90s before any fame or fortune came our way, those are some of the humble days I think we remember in Myrtle Beach, just playing random golf courses and doing small bar gigs, those are some good times, too,” Felber said Feb. 27.
This story was originally published May 8, 2019 at 5:23 PM.