What You Really Need to Know About the Carolina Country Music Festival

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For two years now, my sister and I have made the trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a girls weekend at the Carolina Country Music Fest, aka, CCMF. Before these girls weekends, I honestly hadn’t been to very many concerts and never a music festival. I wasn’t sure what to expect that first year (2017). However, my sister had attended the previous year so I relied on her to know what to do and what to expect.

CCMF is definitely an experience, that’s for sure. It has been one of the craziest events I’ve ever been to. With summer just around the corner, you may be starting to plan where and what to do. If you’re interested in country music festivals this summer, stick around. CCMF is a music festival you’ll want to keep in mind while planning your summer. And I have some tips, tricks, and important information about CCMF. I’m going to tell you what you really need to know about the Carolina Country Music Fest.

The Tickets

First, let’s get through the basics of CCMF. The music festival usually falls on a weekend in early June. It is three days long (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) but it’s actually four days if you include the Thursday night kick-off concert that also happens every year. The type of ticket that you purchase will determine if you get to go to the kick-off concert or not.

General Admission Tickets

There are several types of tickets that can be purchased and more info can be found here. My sister and I purchased the 4-Day General Admission (GA) Pass when we attended CCMF in 2017. This gave us access to most of the venders and stages. However, we were only allowed to get as close as possible to the main stage on Thursday night. This is because during the Thursday night kick-off concert, there are no sections (general admission, VIP, etc.) in place for the attendees. From Friday night on, we could only be in the GA area of the festival, meaning we couldn’t go past a certain fence that separated GA from VIP (VIP gets you the closest to the main stage area).

If you are going to enjoy the entire festival, see artists perform at different smaller stages around the music festival, buy a lot from the venders, and don’t mind not being close the main stage, then purchasing GA tickets should work fine. It’s one of the cheapest tickets and you still get to enjoy CCMF. My sister and I however, really wanted to see the people who would be performing on the main stage. In 2017, when we had GA tickets, we had to make sure to arrive early to get a spot right at the fence that separated GA from VIP. Being at the fence is the closest and best spot in GA.

*Pro Tip: bring a blanket to the festival to hold your spot. And make sure it’s one that you don’t mind getting completely filthy because it will be so dirty by the end of the weekend that you might have to throw it away.

VIP Tickets

After that first year in General Admission (GA), I knew that if we came back the next year, we’d be happier in the VIP section. So, last year (2018) when we decided to attend CCMF again, my sister and I were able to purchase VIP tickets. This meant that we would be attending the festival for all four days, have access to basically the whole festival, and have the opportunity to be right at the front of the main stage.

June 2018 rolled around and we were off to the Carolina Country Music Fest to have another amazing girls weekend! We arrived in Myrtle Beach on Thursday afternoon. We then checked into our hotel, which, by the way, was literally right beside the music festival. This hotel was SOOO much better than the one we had stayed at down the street the previous year.

*Pro Tip: do NOT stay at the Happy Holiday Motel unless you enjoy being asked about doing drugs, getting woken up at night by drunk people banging on your hotel door, glass bottles breaking on the street late at night, and having to sleep under a comforter that is basically the same material as a thin curtain. I know that was a long sentence but all of that actually happened to us! I just want to warn others of that hotel.

When to Arrive at the Music Festival

Since Thursday night’s concert doesn’t start until later on in the evening, we had time to settle in a bit before walking over to the festival. We also took that time to go over to the box office: Ground Zero because I had one a prize pack on CCMF’s Facebook page and that’s where I was to pick it up at. I ended up with free CCMF t-shirts, flip flops, cups, and more for my sister and I! My sister also ended up winning meet and greet passes for Deanna Carter (she sings, Strawberry Wine)! 

*Pro Tip: Follow CCMF on social media. That’s how we won all of the stuff we got and the meet and greet passes! They give away prizes throughout the year on their social media accounts and they share information about the festival on there as well.

Arrive Early

It is important to still arrive very early though, if you want a good spot for the performances on the main stage. I’m talking, early. My sister and I woke up around 6am on Saturday, got ready, and were in line at the gate at around 9am. I wasn’t going to miss the chance to be as close as possible to Luke Bryan and Brett Young! After you get in line at the entrance to CCMF, you wait and wait and then wait some more. Did I mention CCMF takes place in June…in SOUTH CAROLINA?! It’s going to be hot. 

*Pro Tip: The gates to the festival won’t open until around 1pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so make friends with the people around you who are as crazy as you waiting for the gates to open. These people will most likely agree to watch your belongings and hold your spot. This will allow you to go walk around a bit on the boulevard, get a bite to eat or drink, or use the restroom if you need to. Just be sure to return the favor if they ask. 

Rules and Security

Once they open the gates to the festival, each person has to go through a security check. If you have a bag, it also has to be checked. Last year, CCMF implemented a new rule. Now if you bring a bag into the concert, it must be clear and a certain size. You can check out all of the rules here. They have clear tote bags to purchase from CCMF once you arrive but I wanted a backpack so I ordered this one off of Amazon. It’s small, clear, and complied with the new rules for bags.

After you go through security, you literally have to run as fast as you can to get the spot that you want, if your goal is to be as close to the main stage as possible. It’s pretty hectic!

How to Get Through Security Faster

Last year, my sister and I learned a new way that we could make it through security faster and have a better chance of getting a good spot right up front. If you are going to CCMF with someone, have the slower runner of your group take the bags that are to be checked while waiting in line at the entrance. The faster person of the group will go through the security check, ahead of the person with the bags. The runner will go through security with just the blanket that will be used to sit on and hold your spot during the concert.

This way, you get through security faster, the runner will have less to run with, and have a better chance at an awesome spot. The person with the bags can then take their time, not worry about running and dropping the bags, and then meet up with the runner at your desired spot in the festival once they have gone through security.

I know that somewhere, a CCMF worker has a video of me running in a skirt, while holding a dirty blanket, and trying to get to a spot up front at the main stage, haha! And just so you know, I got the spot I wanted and man, was it a good one! There was no possible way to be any closer to Luke Bryan, Brett Young, Chris Lane, and so many other amazing artists than my sister and I were that Saturday night. It was glorious.

Plan Your Days at the Music Festival

If you decide that getting up early, waiting forever for the gates to open, running to find a good spot, and baking in the sun all day isn’t what you want to do EVERY day of CCMF, I get it. It sounds crazy, and it is. So, what my sister and I decided was that on Sunday (CCMF2018), we would do things a little different. There wasn’t any artists that we absolutely HAD to see up close that day so we decided to sleep in and then just arrive whenever we felt like it. It was great. We even went to the beach for a bit! We then walked around the music festival, shopped a bit, and ate some food. 

*Pro Tip: I highly recommend planning out your time at CCMF. Decide what artists you really want to see and what day they will be there. That will be the day(s) when you will want to arrive super early and run to the stage like you’re being chased by zombies to get that perfect spot up front, near the main stage. If there is a day when there is an artist performing that you don’t mind watching from afar, then use that day to explore the festival. There really are some cool things to see and do besides just watching performances on the main stage. 

I will admit though, not having a spot right at one of the fences that separates the stage from the audience or one section from another, kind of sucks. I like having the fence to lean on during the performances. That Sunday, we were in the middle of the crowd and it wasn’t as nice. There were people all around and I had to keep an eye on our stuff a little more. Overall though, taking a break from the chaos was worth it and we still had an amazing last day.

So to quickly recap:

• Decide which tickets you want to purchase for CCMF. Ticket decision is important!
• Read CCMF’s rules…seriously.
• Plan your days by what artists you most want to see up close
• Get there early
• Take some time to explore the whole festival
• Have the most amazing time and make memories that you’ll cherish forever!

Pro Tips:

• Bring a blanket
• Don’t stay at the Happy Holiday Motel
• Follow CCMF on social media
• Make friends while waiting in line
• Choose the fastest runner of the group to get a good spot inside the festival
• Plan to have at least one day where you explore the rest of the festival and check out all of the vendors and activities

I hope this blog post has given you the information, tips, and tricks you really need to know if you are thinking about attending CCMF this summer. Believe me, CCMF is an unforgettable experience and I highly recommend going! It will be the highlight of your summer!

Now that you have the information, tips, and tricks about the Carolina Country Music Festival, you need to understand what it’s really like at CCMF (the good and the bad). I’m sharing it all so be sure to check out that blog post as well! I share with you some of the items that I’ve learned to bring with me and ones that I leave behind.

Have you ever been to the Carolina Country Music Festival? I’d love to hear your experience if you have! If not, leave me a comment about your first concert or music festival experience.

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