Myrtle Beach area motorcycle rallies may run in tandem; Harley-Davidson rally trimmed to five days
NMB convention to coincide with Cruisin' the Coast event
Residents worried about a proposed motorcycle rally in North Myrtle Beach extending the spring rally season to three weeks won't have to worry if the plan moves forward with newly proposed changes.
The five-day convention, which had previously been billed as a free-standing event, would coincide with the Harley-Davidson Cruisin' the Coast Spring Rally after organizers agreed to move the dates of the new event earlier in the month of May.
Organizers of the Harley-Davidson spring rally said the Main Street event would likely be the official space for Harley-Davidson corporate and the Harley Owners Group events and be part of the larger rally - which has also been trimmed down to five days.
"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, Murrells Inlet and then stuff on Main Street. ... That would be kind of like the home base of Bike week," said Mike Shank, marketing director for Myrtle Beach Harley-Davidson. "Generally when corporate brings the demo rides, the Harley Owners Group attends and does an event pin."
Mark Lazarus, who is spearheading the North Myrtle Beach event with Horry County Councilman Harold Worley, said it will bring as many as 10,000 additional bikers to North Myrtle Beach through the HOG group. The two businessmen filed a special events permit application with North Myrtle Beach to be able to house about 40 vendors from May 11 through May 15 at their shared business venture, the O.D. Pavilion Amusement Park at Ocean Boulevard and Main Street. The original application called for later dates in May.
"What we're doing is strictly vending at the Pavilion site. The HOG Group generally holds pinning events at the corporate [sponsored booths]. We're looking at potentially 10,000 HOG members coming through to stop at that pinning event and bringing their business to Main Street," he said. "Would it be out of the question that other motorcyclists will come up to the corporate vending area? No. But, we won't have anything but vending from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. if we can get the city's approval."
Previous reports listed a host of different motorcycle and Harley-Davidson groups as being possibly involved with the rally, but Worley said that the local Myrtle Beach dealers and the corporate office are the only two groups working with them on the event. A letter sent from the Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association last week confirmed that it will hold its rally in New Bern, N.C., again this spring after the stricter rally rules enacted by Myrtle Beach and Horry County prodded them to move the event last year.
Mike King, a spokesman for Harley-Davidson Motor Company in Milwaukee, Wis., said the only real involvement the company would have with an event like the one North Myrtle Beach is planning would be as a third party.
"Our position is that this would be an event led by a local dealer and a community ... and if we were to attend it would be to interact with our customers, but only as a third party," he said Friday.
Worley said if the event works out this year, it will be held on the third weekend in May in future years, which will put it closer to the Memorial Day weekend opening of the O.D. Pavilion. The North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce has been polling businesses about their feelings on the rally and has formed a committee to look into the ordinance changes that would be needed for a long-term commitment to the event.
"We will release the findings of our survey at the public workshop on the proposal whenever the city holds it. Until then, we're not the driving force behind the event and the chamber feels like it would be better to wait for others to weigh in," said Marc Jordan, executive director of the chamber. "Overall, we're not recommending a change to the special event permitting process, though."
Shank said he hasn't seen a blueprint for the space that the Harley-Davidson test drives and display might need at the Pavilion venue, so he isn't sure if more vendors will be possible for the space. He said if anything is added, it would not involve late nights, loud music or the contests at some of the other venues.
"Everything we've done in the past closes at 7 p.m. At the dealership and even at Barefoot we've never gotten into staying open late playing music or having burnout pits or anything like that. If that's what works for your venue, that's fine, but we haven't done that," he said.
Shank said the number of vendors he has been allowed to book for the spring rally dropped from almost 200 in years past to just more than 50, with about 40 at the Shops at Barefoot Landing space and 13 at the Harley-Davidson dealership. He said the Barefoot vendor applications were sent out last week, but vendors will not be setting up through two weekends this year. Instead they will set up on May 10 and close May 15.
The North Myrtle Beach City Council is expected to discuss Worley and Lazarus's proposal at its Feb. 1 meeting, but that could change if more information is requested by the city.
(reprinted from the TheSunNews.com)