Rock’n the Beach Draws Thousands
By Lenore McKenzie-Morris
Milton Figueredo and Alix Aldana celebrated New Year's Eve on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach with thousands of tourists and locals.
Standing in front of the band stand, listening to a live band play beach music, the couple were pretty far from their home in Columbia, South America.
"I teach Spanish at Myrtle Beach High School," Figueredo said. "We've been here for about six months. This looked like fun, like a lot of people would be here, people who come to enjoy the music, not just come to drink, like it's more of a family thing.
"We came about 10, we had dinner for New Year's first and just came for the music and to have a soda and a good time."
Tiffany Andrews, sales and marketing administrator for the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, estimated the crowd had reached about 4,000 by 11:30 p.m. The day-long event featured vendors with funnel cakes, sausages, popcorn, soda and beer offered since early afternoon. A climbing tower, an inflatable slide and bounce house were located at the end of Mr. Joe White Avenue where many small children could be found clutching balloons. The oceanfront Plyler Park offered street entertainers and a chalk art action for families, too.
Andrews said the children's area vendors requested more space for their equipment next year. She anticipates the festival will be extended at least one block along Ocean Boulevard.
With oceanfront hotels offering rates as low as $49, the event was seen as a boost to the Myrtle Beach travel industry.
Rock'n the Beach culminated in a ball lift and fireworks display at 9th Avenue North.
Between the horn blowing and shouts of "Happy New Year," the booms and pops of the fireworks were accompanied by many appreciative crowd sounds. Many in the crowd used their cell phones to record the ball lift and fireworks.
"This was great - even though we've been to Time Square," said Mel Prioleau, a Myrtle Beach resident who just relocated from New York in the last year. "This is a nice start if this is what they plan to do in the coming year. It will probably be bigger next year."
David Fishman packed up his Kettle Corn stand at 12:15 a.m. and prepared to return to Murrells Inlet.
"Every first year event needs a few years to get a personality," Fishman said. "Having the boardwalk complete next year will add some pop."
Several vendors still had lines of people waiting to order food, long after the fireworks had stopped. Families still drifted along in clusters in the middle of the street, candied apples in hand while random shouts of "Happy New Year" rang out from the groups of friends walking the sidewalks away from the festival site.
Many continued their celebration of the new year in the parking garage, where a single blast of a car horn started a cacophonous racket that echoed throughout all the stories of the parking garage.
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