Myrtle Beach CCMF returns for 2023 concert series

May 16, 2023

The Bowery draws a crowd as the Carolina Country Music Fest kicks off Thursday in Myrtle Beach and continues through Sunday. The gates open each day at 1 p.m. with the headliners slated to the take the stage around 10 p.m. It is sold out. The grounds are at the Burroughs & Chapin Pavilion Place stretching from Kings Highway, over Ocean Boulevard and to the edge of the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk. The festival grounds are bound by 8th and 9th avenues north but additional roads are closed to traffic. Photo by Janet Morgan/[email protected]

Thousands of people are expected to pour into downtown Myrtle Beach for the sold-out Carolina Country Music Festival, which runs through Sunday.

Downtown businesses have prepared for the annual fest by loading up on food and alcohol as streets near the Burroughs & Chapin Pavilion Place are closed to traffic until the beginning of next week and non-bar businesses prepare for a long business weekend.

The festival kicks off Thursday night, with singers Hardy, Tracy Lawrence, Chase Matthew and Dylan Marlowe. This year's lineup includes country music artists Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Brooks and Dunn, Travis Tritt, Bret Michaels, Whiskey Myers, Scott McCreery and more than 30 other country music artists.

As Myrtle Beach police have closed streets around the venue and barricaded the perimeter, area bars and restaurants have prepared in various ways.

Kara Byrnes, a bartender at The Ole Irish Pub, said the bar triples and sometimes even quadruples its drink orders ahead of the annual festival.

"We usually have an extra trailer out back that we fill up with extra beer that we can't fit in the walk-in, since we can't order beer after Saturday of course, so we have to prep for Saturday and Monday beforehand," Byrnes said. "...I think, before CCMF was over one night, we did about 2,400 drink orders. … We’re also going through two cases of whiskey a day."

At Atlas Tap House down on Chester Street, the bar is planning to run its CCMF specialty cocktails like the Crown Creamsicle made from Crown Royal blended canadian whiskey and vanilla Smirnoff.

Other options include the Southern Peach Tea made with Smirnoff peach lemonade and lemon juice mixed with sweet tea, or the Pink Drink, which is made of Smirnoff pink lemonade and soda water with a lemon wheel.

"There's like seven of us, and we’re all gonna be on," said bartender Melanie Myers, who’d previously worked the long hours for businesses during CCMF. "...I feel like Wednesday to Sunday is gonna be a very good week."

The bar isn't the only place that's bustling with orders during CCMF.

Anthony Lawson, chef at Oceanfront Bar and Grill, said the orders usually don't stop during the nights of the festival.

"We’re slinging burgers, seafood, po boys, throwing them out from 2 p.m. to 12 at midnight, non-stop," Lawson said.

CCMF was first organized and held in 2015 by Charlotte-based marketing and event production company Full House Productions, and has since brought over 40 plus famous country music stars to Myrtle Beach nearly every year, according to the CCMF website.

CCMF 2023 will last a day longer than last year's concert series.

Reid Bozell, manager at 8th Ave Tiki Bar & Grill, said the event is the biggest event of the year for the bar, to the point that the business is bringing in outside help from workers’ fiancés and significant others to have extra hands.

"We order a hella ton of beer, and alcohol, and liquor, and dry stock and whatnot," Bozell said. "We always throw a kickass party. I like to think that we’re the most fun spot after CCMF, we got karaoke on Saturday night. It's always such a blast, it really doesn't feel like working because it's such a fun time."

Despite his fervor for the event, one thing that Bozell criticized about the build-up to the event is the handling of traffic closures and early barricade set-up for the event.

"With how they set up the barricades, it really screws us over big time," Bozell said. "This year specifically, they started setting up barricades at 4 p.m. on [last] Friday and Saturday. So if you’re coming north or south, and you hit 9th Ave., you get turned back up to the highway on 17. It's definitely affected our business this year, without a shadow of a doubt."

Barricades for the concert began being set-up for the concert's construction of the stage and concert area on June 2, and set-up for the stage began earlier this week.

In preparation for thousands of country music lovers from around the country coming into Myrtle Beach, certain downtown streets will be closed off. Here are areas to avoid this weekend with roads that will be closed:

Mark Hardee, owner of Idle Parking Solution at 707 Ocean Boulevard, said the city's traffic control causes problems for his parking lot on the south side of the Burroughs & Chapin Pavilion Place, due to how it pushes people toward the north side entrance of Ocean Boulevard at Kings Highway.

"We’re always upset because we wish we had an entrance to the event on our side, or to at least have an exit on our side," Hardee said. "We got folks that actually tailgate because they can see the main stage from my parking lot. Thank goodness I got some of the VIP parking lots. I started out the first year when CCMF came to town and was able to get $50 a day."

Hardee said he normally has about five or six spots that he leases out in the daytime as well, making the event profitable overall but tricky to fill in empty spots.

"To answer the question of whether it's good for us… it's OK, I guess," Hardee said.

Some businesses and parking lots aren't the only ones impacted by the traffic closures. Retail shops are also affected by the way road closures and scarcity of parking affects the way customers consume and access stores on the boulevard, said Michelle Plyler of the Gay Dolphin gift shop.

"People have to carry everything with them, and they can't take anything into the concert with them," Plyler said. "The road closures and parking make it difficult too, but our hope is that we see them come in a day earlier or stay a day later so that they can see the things while they were at the country music festival, and we hope that they come back to Myrtle Beach."

Plyler also said that one of the bands in the past, Midland, had come into the store and bought a lot of Gay Dolphin merchandise, one member of which wore a store T-shirt on stage.

"But, the businesses that see a lot more business are the ones that aren't retail," Plyler said.

Another store runner with melted expectations for CCMF and the business it brings into town is James Angela, general manager at Mad Myrtle's Ice Creamery.

"We get no business, really, or we get everyone last minute when they release," Angela said. "If they keep on doing encores, then we don't get any of it. …It brings in slight headaches. A lot of people are really intoxicated by that time, which makes them a little harder to work with. Some people are a little rowdy."

Victor Shamah, owner of The Bowery and Peaches Corner, praised the wave of customers that CCMF brings for his businesses.

"If all our visitors were as orderly as that," Shamah said. "With 40,000 people, it's great. …It brings a lot of people into the hotels, a lot of people into downtown. It brings a lot of people into the area from all over the country. …Some people complain about it, saying they get no business from it. When somebody drops 40,000 people at your door for four days, you gotta figure out a way to do business."

Attendees looking to avoid the adjacent parking lots can pay to park at the old mall site at 2501 N. Kings Highway, where they can shuttle to the concert through a bus service.

Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft can also be used to transport people to and from CCMF, but only along Chester Street, between Mr. Joe White Avenue and 12th Avenue North for this year's event, according to MBPD.

Tidelands Health is offering tips to concertgoers, advising them to maintain their health and wellness throughout the three-day festival. Here are ten tips for the weekend:

Reach out to Chase Duncan at [email protected].

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