Spring Bike Rally set to start Monday after being postponed since May

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - After being postponed for a few months, vendors still worry about business for the rescheduled Spring Bike Rally.

So for Carol “Frenchie,” a vendor who traveled to Murrells Inlet for the week, the sound of motorcycles pulling into the parking lot of The Beaver Bar is music to her ears.

“This is my first event since the month of March,” she says, adding the last event she could go to before the COVID-19 pandemic was Daytona Beach Bike Week. “We tour like a rock star.”

While she’s glad the event was rescheduled and not cancelled, she isn’t sure how much business she’ll get over the next week.

“We definitely we expect less people. It’s not the right days, people have been coming for years in May,” she says.

With cases growing rapidly in South Carolina and Horry County deemed a hot spot, tourism is down.

At a news conference Friday, the director for the state’s tourism department announced the Fourth of July weekend actually showed a dip in tourists statewide and along the Grand Strand.

This comes after many weeks of nearly full hotels and packed beaches along the coast.

Many bikers who were out ahead of the official start of bike week say they’re from the area. Some believe the triple digit heat index is partially to blame for smaller crowds.

And while the week doesn’t officially get started until Monday, leading up to event The Beaver Bar and nearby SBB weren’t nearly as busy as they were over the weekend back in May when the rally was initially supposed to be held.

But for Carol, she just wants something to feel normal.

“I’m really hoping for a return to normalcy, for business to get back up. Like all of us we had to make ends meet financially during this time,” she says.

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