Monday, Jan. 25, 2010

A different picture of May develops for Myrtle Beach area

Events offer more choices

No one knows for certain what this May will look like now that the bike rallies have waned, but food shows, a military festival and a car show are on tap to lure visitors.

"May is going to be full of activities," said Myrtle Beach spokesman Mark Kruea. "None of them individually will be as big as the bike rallies were at their peak, but there will be lots of diverse things to do. Without the bike rallies, we have room for other events, and the community's imagination has been uncorked now that people see what May can be."

In summer 2008, Myrtle Beach enacted a series of laws to quell the Harley-Davidson Cruisin' the Coast Spring Rally and the Atlantic Beach Bikefest, both of which had grown so large that residents said they felt overwhelmed.

The move angered a lot of motorcycle riders and rally supporters, and between the recession and a semi-organized boycott of Myrtle Beach, May was quiet in 2009.

But the beach could be livelier this year.

Two food shows are scheduled, the city plans to make the military days event even bigger, an antique car show in Surfside Beach is growing and a children's festival also is in the works. And the much-anticipated 1.2-mile boardwalk will be ready for its first summer.

One of the new events planned for May is Coastal Uncorked, a locally organized and supported gourmet food-and-wine festival that's set to last a week and feature tastings, a regional restaurant week and concerts. Though most of the festival is based in Myrtle Beach, organizer Heidi Vukov, owner of Croissants Bakery and Bistro, said it's a Grand Strand event because everyone can participate, and it will benefit the Grand Strand's culinary and hospitality college students through an education fund.

Coastal Uncorked is scheduled from May 16 through 23, but it's not the region's only gourmet offering in May. The Taste Gourmet Trade Show and Expo has booked the Myrtle Beach Convention Center for May 14, 15 and 16, and though it's a trade show, it will be open to the public with demonstrations, celebrity chefs, products and more for the amateur cook or for those who just love to eat.

"There are so many great restaurants and talented chefs here, having gourmet shows is a no-brainer," Vukov has said.

But May won't be only about food.

A new children's festival - a fundraiser for the Children's Museum of South Carolina - is scheduled for the first weekend in May, and is designed to encourage fitness. It will feature runs and walks, a stroller derby and other family activities, and will tie into family attractions throughout Myrtle Beach.

For people who love vintage cars, Surfside Beach will be the hot spot. Surfside Beach Mayor Allen Deaton said the city is looking forward to an expanded antique car show for Memorial Day weekend.

The town and area car clubs launched the new festival last May, and Deaton said it went over so well, the car clubs are talking about adding a day, having a parade and allowing about 165 more cars than last year's 100 or so.

"We're pretty excited about it," Deaton said.

Surfside Beach never really had vendors during the motorcycle rallies, but does get quite a few rallygoers renting beach houses, and Deaton said he thinks that won't change.

"Last year was down in general, but we'll probably see similar numbers this year as last year," he said. "A lot of the bike rally takes place on the south end of the Grand Strand."

Leslye Beaver, who owns the two Beaver Bar locations in Murrells Inlet, said she's not planning to do anything different.

"Whether 2,000 people come or 200,000 people come, people will still come here because it's the Beaver Bar," she said.

She said she's excited that the Harley-Davidson rally will have more of a presence in North Myrtle Beach because people liked to ride up there anyway. But she said she has no idea whether there will be more people this year than last. She's just going to keep doing what she does.

Event promoter Mike Shank, who helped the Harley-Davidson rally grow and helps bring thousands here for the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February, said he's transitioning from spending all his time in May on the motorcycle rally.

Shank said with new Horry County regulations, he'll have 50 vendors at Barefoot Landing and at the Harley-Davidson shops north and south of Myrtle Beach, not the 200 he had in previous years. The permits will only be good for five days this year, too, so the rally will be shorter than the 13-day event it turned into in the past few years.

North Myrtle Beach businessman Mark Lazarus and Horry County Councilman Harold Worley are courting rally-goers with additional biker events from May 10 to May 15. They are hoping for 10,000 riders - not the giant crowds that Myrtle Beach residents said overwhelmed them - and Shank said he thinks North Myrtle Beach will be a place for many to go and enjoy themselves.

"The majority of what they would do is having Harley-Davidson there for demo rides and maybe some additional vendors. Basically it would be another location where there was something at Barefoot [Landing], Murrells Inlet and then stuff on Main Street. ... That would be kind of like the home base of bike week," Shank has said.

But, he said, it will not be an event anywhere near as large as before.

"I don't think they'll be overrun," he said. "They don't want as many people there."

Though last year showed people what the area would be like without the one big event many had relied on to kick off the summer season, this year is about starting anew.

Shank is now working with Coastal Uncorked and the Children's Museum festival, and is looking for other events to promote.

He said the way to make any event successful is to have enough dedication and backing - not necessarily a lot of money, but a lot of support.

Any event, he said, is going to take time to grow, but the ones that have support - as Coastal Uncorked does, as the Myrtle Beach Marathon and other events have - are likely to do well over time.

Myrtle Beach is hoping its military days festival will be one of those.

Last year's event, which featured family events, athletic competitions and commemorative services, drew visitors from the military bases in South Carolina and surrounding states. City spokesman Kruea said this year's event is still in the planning stages so it's too early to talk about details, but there are already plans to expand.

Organizers have talked about adding a parade and an air show, but whether those will be added this year is unknown yet. Last year's event went well, organizers said, but has room to grow.

"We're not trying to create one large event to replace the rallies," Kruea said. "A combination of smaller events will provide enough room for everyone to enjoy May."

Contact reporter LORENA ANDERSON at 444-1722.