There’s a certain kind of music you can only hear in a small room. Not the arena version, not the radio version — the version where the person who wrote the song sits a few feet away, tells you where it came from, and plays it the way it sounded the night it was born. Nashville built an entire identity on that experience. Key West and 30A turned it into festival gold. And this November, for the first time, Myrtle Beach gets its own.

The inaugural Myrtle Beach Songwriters Festival arrives Friday and Saturday, November 13–14, 2026, filling seven walkable venues in downtown Myrtle Beach with fifty songwriters performing nothing but original music. The artists were chosen from more than 300 submissions and hail from 37 states — California to New Jersey, Colorado to Kentucky — alongside a strong contingent of Grand Strand locals. General admission is completely free, and every dollar of proceeds goes to a Horry County charity feeding local kids.

For a coast that already knows how to throw a music party — this is, after all, the home of the Carolina Country Music Fest and the birthplace of the shag — a songwriters festival fills the one seat still empty at the table: a stage built not for cover bands and tribute acts, but for the people who write the songs in the first place. The founder’s stated ambition is nothing less than changing how people perceive the Myrtle Beach music scene and putting the town on the map for original music.

Here’s the full story — who’s playing, where to wander, and how to build a beautiful fall beach weekend around it.

The Festival at a Glance

Before we get into the stories — and this festival is full of good ones — here are the essentials in one place:

The Idea Behind It: Songs That Save

The festival is the brainchild of Melissa Joiner, a local songwriter and touring musician who has spent about fifteen years in the songwriters festival world and helped build one of the largest songwriter competitions along the Florida–Alabama coast. Joiner has said the Grand Strand has needed an event like this for a long time — a gathering that unites songwriters and audiences through original music while strengthening the community through service.

That last part isn’t a tagline. The festival is the first major outreach of Joiner’s Songs That Save Foundation, a nonprofit organized around three pillars — hunger, hope, and health. The foundation partners with organizations fighting food insecurity, runs programs that put instruments in children’s hands and teach them to write their own songs, and supports the well-being of working musicians. Proceeds from the 2026 festival go to Backpack Buddies, the Horry County charity that delivers nearly 3,000 food packs to local children every single week. Come for the music, and the price of a VIP ticket quietly feeds a kid down the street.

Joiner has also emphasized a design principle that shapes the whole weekend: the event is built to include every rung of the songwriter’s ladder. Newcomers with a notebook full of first drafts will share sidewalks, green rooms, and open mics with hit-makers whose songs have topped charts — the kind of mixing that turns a festival into a mentorship engine.

The Lineup: 50 Songwriters, 37 States, Every Genre

The selection board sifted more than 300 entries down to fifty showcased artists, deliberately favoring diversity of sound over any single genre — country and blues sit alongside beach music, jazz, and folk on the same weekend schedule. A few names give a sense of the range.

Bo Roberts

The Perdido Key, Florida songwriter arrives with one of the deepest résumés on the bill: he served as lead guitarist and bandleader for Hank Williams Jr. and has written songs recorded by Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney, Jamey Johnson, and others. When someone who’s written for Willie sits down with a guitar in a Myrtle Beach coffeehouse, you find a seat.

Trey Calloway

Based in Cornelius, North Carolina — with a home in Myrtle Beach — Calloway has showcased his original music at the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville’s storied Bluebird Café, and he’s played the Carolina Country Music Fest right here on the Strand. His trophy shelf includes the Texas Country Music Association’s Songwriter of the Year honor plus Josie Music Awards for Song of the Year and Social Impact Music Video of the Year.

Rick Strickland and Lesa Hudson

The hometown heroes of the bill. The high-energy local duo carries 27 Carolina Beach Music Awards and 34 number-one beach radio hits between them — a living link between the festival’s new-music mission and the beach music tradition that made this coast famous. Their genre was born in the dance halls of Ocean Drive, and it’s fitting to see it represented on a songwriters stage.

Frankie Raye and Allison Strong

Florida’s Frankie Raye brings the heartfelt songwriting and engaging live presence that have built her regional following, while Union City, New Jersey’s Allison Strong — a Kerrville New Folk Festival finalist and a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Music Fellow — represents the festival’s national reach. Full bios for all fifty artists are posted on the festival’s official site.

Seven Venues, One Walkable Downtown

The festival’s genius is its geography. All seven venues cluster within walking distance of each other in downtown Myrtle Beach, which turns the weekend into a stroll — catch a round of songs over a pint, wander a block for coffee and another set, drift onward when the next act calls. Grand Strand Brewing Company anchors the map with both an indoor and an outdoor stage, pouring its own craft beer between sets. Fresh Brewed Coffee House offers the classic listening-room intimacy where a lyric can land in total quiet, while Winna’s Kitchen adds a supper-and-songs pairing from one of downtown’s most beloved kitchens. The Tasting Room on 9th brings a wine-bar warmth to the circuit, and The Dolly Llama — yes, the waffle-and-ice-cream spot — proves no festival stage is complete without dessert. First Methodist Church of Myrtle Beach rounds out the seven as home of the Kids Corner.

It’s a snapshot of what downtown Myrtle Beach has quietly become in recent years: a genuine arts-and-eats district where breweries, cafés, and galleries have taken root a few blocks off the ocean. The festival essentially invites visitors to discover that transformation one song at a time.

Kids Corner, Open Mics, and the Grand Finale

True to the foundation’s mission, the festival makes room for the youngest songwriters in the family. The Kids Corner at First Methodist Church runs from 2 to 5 p.m. with instruments, teachers, and hands-on sessions where children can learn to play and even write their own songs — a rare festival feature that turns kids from spectators into participants.

The fifty showcased artists aren’t the only ones who get a microphone, either. Two special open mic events during the festival give unselected songwriters a shot at performing their original songs — keeping faith with that every-rung-of-the-ladder philosophy.

And the weekend builds to a proper crescendo: a grand finale showcase from 9 p.m. to midnight on Grand Strand Brewing Company’s outdoor stage, featuring a full band and festival artists performing together. Fifty songwriters, two days of rounds, one last collaborative blowout under the November sky — that’s how you end an inaugural year.

The Road to the Festival: Two Preview Showcases

Can’t wait until November? The festival board is warming up the coast with two Road to the Festival Showcase evenings spotlighting local artists from the lineup, and the first one is nearly here. On Friday, August 22, six songwriters perform their original music at Local Eat Drink and Celebrate in Pawleys Island. Then on Saturday, September 19, six more take the stage at Landshark Bar and Grill at Barefoot Landing, right on the waterfront in North Myrtle Beach. Both showcases run from 5 to 8 p.m.

The September date is an especially easy evening for anyone staying in town — Barefoot Landing sits minutes from every North Myrtle Beach neighborhood, and an original-music happy hour on the Intracoastal makes a fine preview of what November holds. Keep an eye on the Myrtle Beach events calendar for what else is happening those weekends.

Planning a Songwriters Festival Weekend

Mid-November is one of the Grand Strand’s best-kept secrets. The summer crowds are a memory, the light turns soft and golden, restaurant tables come easy, and rental rates hit some of their friendliest numbers of the year. A free two-day music festival slots into that season perfectly: mornings walking a quiet beach, afternoons and evenings hopping listening rooms downtown, and no admission line anywhere.

North Myrtle Beach makes a natural home base for the weekend. The downtown festival district sits an easy 15-to-20-minute drive south, and coming home to the quieter end of the Strand after a midnight finale has its own appeal. The Cherry Grove Beach section offers peaceful mornings by the fishing pier, while Crescent Beach and Windy Hill put wide, uncrowded November sand right outside your door. Between festival sessions, the full menu of things to do in Myrtle Beach fills the daylight hours, and our guide to a fall vacation in North Myrtle Beach rounds out the season’s calendar.

One practical note for planners: schedules, set times, and venue assignments for a first-year festival can evolve, so confirm details on the official festival site before finalizing your weekend.

Frequently Asked Questions