Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Atlantic Beach Bikefest hot topic of candidates

The small town of Atlantic Beach is known for its annual Memorial Day Bikefest and for the large crowds - and complaints - it draws.

The three candidates running for the two open seats in the Town Council elections on Tuesday - Paul Curry, Josephine Isom and Charlene Taylor - have varied opinions on the future of Bikefest and ways to draw tourists.

Curry, who is the only non-incumbent, has been a consistently vocal opponent of the Bikefest.

He describes himseslf as pro-tourism, but said he has a problem with the loud noise that Bikefest brings, along with the public consumption of alcohol, the unlawful use of golf carts by town officials and the large number of vendors selling counterfeit goods.

"I don't see a single motorcycle dealer setting up in Atlantic Beach," he said. "If it's billed as the Memorial Day weekend Bikefest, then the vendors ought to be geared toward those potential attendees.

"It probably needs to be scaled back, because when development comes, people aren't going to tolerate parties until 3 in the morning and people drinking alcohol in the street."

Taylor said the noise is to be expected and shouldn't come as a surprise or disappointment to anyone.

"The bikers come in town, and they're going to bring noise. They are noisy," she said. "We can't tell them not to come because they're going to come regardless."

It's not much different from decades ago when African-Americans flocked to Atlantic Beach during segregation, Taylor said.

"We had open-air everything. It wasn't closed in. We had everything open then, and there was noise then. What's the difference between then and the noise now?" she said. "And that's only for just a weekend. It's not weeks at a time, and back in the day, it would last all summer."

Bikefest, which was started by a small, close-knit group of friends in 1980, has grown to as many as 200,000 to 400,000 participants, and dozens of vendors who sell T-shirts, compact discs, jewelry, purses and Jamaican food.

Curry said the event has become an inconvenience for many residents because of parking and driving restrictions.

"I thought the fair thing to do would be for the town to provide a lot somewhere in town, get a contract with a landowner for an empty lot and allow the residents to park there," he said. "The town seems to feel they have no obligation to the residents. I understand what they're trying to do, bring income for taxes. I don't want to take that away from them, but it'd be fair to the people."

Isom knows that the Bikefest has room for improvement, but said there's no reason to scale it back..

"Everybody thinks the bike rally is one of our downfalls, but they fail to realize that is a holiday because it's Memorial Day weekend. It will double bringing in the tourists," she said. "We need to revamp it; we probably need to do something else with it, but just to say a bikefest is off limits, no, we do not need to do that."

Taylor said she wants to see Atlantic Beach expand its tourism efforts and not just rely on Bikefest.

"Hopefully, we can put that energy into Gullah Geechee Festival in August," she said. "That could be something Atlantic Beach could feed upon."

The Gullah Geechee people were descendants of slaves who lived for 300 years on the Sea Islands from North Carolina to Florida.

The festival has been going on for years, but mostly attracts residents from around the Myrtle Beach area and from some North Carolina towns, Taylor said.

"We need to put more emphasis on the Gullah Geechee and make that a much wider, a much broader festival than what we have today," she said.

In May, Town Councilman Donnell Thompson proposed an idea for a fall festival in Atlantic Beach, but it fell flat in August when officials said there wasn't enough prior planning or money to make it happen this year.

"We've got to work toward it. We have to get our finances and all our books together," Taylor said. "That's first and foremost in our priorities, and then all this other stuff will fall in line."