NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — SEPTEMBER 1, 2026
BY THOMAS BEACH VACATIONS — NORTH MYRTLE BEACH NEWS
Five bands, fire dancers, live speed art, and roaming street performers headline the inaugural festival on September 26 — and the city has released its full parking, shuttle, and street closure plan.
The City of North Myrtle Beach has filled in the picture for its first-ever NMB Live! festival, releasing the complete entertainment lineup and day-of logistics for the Saturday, September 26 debut on Main Street. The free, rain-or-shine event runs from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with three stages of continuous live music anchored by Yacht Rock Radio featuring American Idol alum Carsen Webb, Whiskey Run, Tokyo Joe, Spare Change, and Trae Pierce & The T-Stones.
The expanded slate confirms what the city hinted at when it announced the festival in July: this is a bigger production than the Main Street events that came before it. Beyond the bands, festival-goers can expect performances by local dance teams, hula dance and fire demonstrations, live speed art, plein air artists painting on site, and street performers and surprise pop-up acts roaming the length of Main Street between the stages, according to festival organizers.
The inaugural event — which steps into the late-September slot held for 21 years by the Irish Italian International Festival — is expected to draw more than 15,000 residents and visitors, with over 150 arts, crafts, food, and commercial vendors lining the street alongside food trucks and Main Street’s own restaurants and bars, all open and serving throughout the day.
The Full Entertainment Slate
The five confirmed bands cover a deliberately wide stretch of musical ground. Yacht Rock Radio brings its smooth 70s and 80s soft-rock revue to the beach, fronted for this show by Carsen Webb of American Idol. Whiskey Run, a hard-touring country and classic rock act familiar to the Carolinas festival circuit, and Tokyo Joe, the longtime South Carolina party-rock draw, return from the originally announced lineup. New to the bill are Spare Change, a Grand Strand party band favorite, and Trae Pierce & The T-Stones, the award-winning funk and rock outfit led by four-time Grammy-winning bassist Trae Pierce.
The non-musical additions give the festival a strolling, something-around-every-corner character — fire and hula demonstrations, speed painters working against the clock, plein air artists capturing the street scene as it happens, and performers threading through the crowd. City organizers have framed the day around the festival’s tagline: one street, three stages.
Parking, Shuttles, and Street Closures
Main Street will close to vehicles from Ash Street to Ocean Boulevard from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM on festival day, with the festival footprint itself running from Ash Street down to Ocean Boulevard, per the city’s event plan. Both admission and parking are free.
Free event parking will be available at the corner of 2nd Avenue North and Ocean Boulevard, the corner of 1st Avenue South and Ocean Boulevard, and McLean Park at 93 Oak Drive. A free shuttle will run from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM from Ocean Drive Elementary School at 901 11th Avenue North — the city’s recommended option for anyone arriving mid-day, when the closer lots are likely to fill. Golf carts and bicycles, both fixtures of North Myrtle Beach getting-around culture, offer an easy alternative for anyone staying in the surrounding neighborhoods.
The simplest plan of all is to skip vehicles entirely. The festival sits in the Ocean Drive section, where Main Street runs down to meet the sand at the Horseshoe — guests staying in an oceanfront condo nearby can walk to the stages with coffee in hand. Larger groups spreading out in an oceanfront home rental in Cherry Grove Beach, Crescent Beach, or Windy Hill are a short drive or shuttle ride from the action — close enough for the festival, far enough for a quiet evening on the sand afterward.
A New Chapter for Main Street’s Festival Tradition
NMB Live! is produced by the City of North Myrtle Beach Parks & Recreation Department as the successor to the Irish Italian International Festival, which drew roughly 15,000 attendees annually over its two-decade run. City officials have said the new event was designed as a larger, more dynamic festival that keeps the community street-party tradition intact while broadening the entertainment well beyond a single cultural theme. The event goes on rain or shine unless the forecast includes unsafe weather conditions.
For the full local guide to the festival — including the story of Main Street’s shag-era landmarks and how to build a fall beach weekend around festival Saturday — see our complete NMB Live! festival guide.
Stay Steps From the Stages on September 26
Late September brings warm ocean water, soft light, and some of the friendliest rental rates of the year to North Myrtle Beach — and the first-ever NMB Live! is a fine reason to build a beach weekend around it. Thomas Beach Vacations offers oceanfront homes and condos across all four beach sections, including an easy stroll from Main Street. Browse availability at www.northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or call our local team at (843) 273-3001.
Sources: City of North Myrtle Beach Parks & Recreation Department (nmb.us); Explore North Myrtle Beach; MyHorryNews. Event details current as of September 1, 2026, and subject to change — confirm on the city’s official NMB Live! page before attending.