Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley, The Band Perry and Kellie Pickler promoter requests Myrtle Beach show
Elissa Jarvis, Lead Reporter Friday, December 09, 2011
Love country music? Want the biggest names in country to play right here in Myrtle Beach? Country Thunder is trying to do just that! Country Thunder is a Tennessee-based Production Company that currently puts on huge country music festivals in Arizona and Wisconsin, and they want to start a new country music festival right here in Myrtle Beach.
Country Thunder asked the Myrtle Beach Accommodations Tax Advisory Board for $200,000 for the first festival but the Board recommended that the city council turn down the request because Country Thunder is for profit. “It’s for profit and they are from out of state,” committee member Debbie Harwell told the Sun News. “Some of our own people could put something similar together.”
That’s true, but Country Thunder has managed to book country superstars Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton, Grammy Nominees The Band Perry, NC Native Kellie Pickler and Alan Jackson for their Florence, Arizona festival in April. Country Thunder’s festivals are normally 4 day events with a daily attendance of 40,000 people. They proposed setting up the Myrtle Beach Festival in the former Myrtle Square Mall site with the event taking place the first weekend in May.
Even though the Accommodations Board recommends against it, the final decision on whether Country Thunder will get the funding rests with the Myrtle Beach City Council. So what do you think: do you love or hate the idea of a country music festival in Myrtle Beach?
Photocredit: http://www.indyposted.com/113697/blake-shelton-will-join-grand-old-opry-video/