No Country Music Festival This Year

It looks like Myrtle Beach won’t be getting a county music festival this year. In December, news broke that Country Thunder, Tennessee-based Production Company that currently puts on huge country music festivals in Arizona and Wisconsin, wanted to bring a country music festival to Myrtle Beach. Country Thunder had asked the Myrtle Beach Accommodations Tax Advisory Board for $200,000 for the first festival but the city council turned down their request last week.

Country Thunder wanted to hold the Myrtle Beach Festival in the former Myrtle Square Mall site with the event taking place the first weekend in May, before bike week takes over the town. Country Thunder’s festivals are normally 4 day events with a daily attendance of 40,000 people and they have booked country superstars Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton, Grammy Nominees the Band Perry, NC Native Kellie Pickler and Alan Jackson for their Florence, Arizona festival this year.

Kent Underwood, a representative for Country Thunder told us that the company is “hopeful in our discussions for a 2013 festival, and are continuing on with that goal.  We think this festival would benefit the State, region and certainly Myrtle Beach on several levels and are encouraged in continued conversations with local stakeholders that would ensure a successful event for everyone.” Underwood also said that a grant from the Accomodations Tax Committee wasn't the best source for what they were proposing.

So who’s hoping for a 2013 country music festival?