North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
Four friends from North Carolina try out grape stomping at SeptemberFest. From left are Cindy Hall of Shallotte, Manda Herring of Shallotte, Bobbie Royster of Fayetteville and Karen Jones of Bolivia.
By Ben Freda
Barefoot Landing is celebrating autumn with an array of events called WonderFall. The season kicked off with the 9th annual SeptemberFest, which was held on Saturday, September 20. Hay decorations made by Thompson Farms give Dockside Village an autumn decor.
Attendees had the chance to be like winemakers during Duplin Winery’s 5th annual Grape Stomp, which was held on the lawn between Crooked Hammock and the playground. Marketing employee Frank Glidden emceed the event encouraging the stompers as they were getting the feel of grape juice on their feet. Four friends each wore a T-shirt depicting the scene from the I Love Lucy episode, Lucy’s Italian Movie. The grapes of the Grape Stomp were harvested from Duplin Winery’s vineyard in Rose Hill, North Carolina. The winery also has a nearby location in North Myrtle Beach and another in Panama City, Florida.
Every year, The Humane Society of North Myrtle Beach brings its bus with dogs so they can enjoy the day outdoors.
“It’s a really great opportunity to not only get our dogs out of the shelter and let them have a day of fun, we love it because we get to see so many of our community members,” said the shelter’s marketing manager Meaghan Pitman. “We are starting to see some more and more familiar faces.”
Holger Skurve, whose son Dave is an employee of the shelter, brought his husky/lab mix named Wiley, whom he adopted in May 2024. He and his wife Theresa met Wiley when they would visit the shelter to take dogs on a walk.
“Wiley is the first dog that didn’t pull me down the street,” said Holger.
The humane society also had a tent with merchandise, raffle tickets and prizes. New this year, there was a Micro Chip Lost Pet Scanner Station.
“Having a lot of strays in the area is something that unfortunately is very common in Horry County,” said Pitman. “We wanted to come up with a resource app where we would be able to help out our community and hopefully get more animals back to their homes quicker rather than having to go to the shelter.”
Live music was performed on the Pepsi Stage by Janko Winehart Duo, 100 Grand Band and City Lights. Lulu’s North Myrtle Beach sold alcoholic beverages such as bloody mary mix and blonde ale.
SeptemberFest is all about community.
“People just love to come out on a pretty day and enjoy it, grab a bite to eat, have a glass of wine or beer, pet some dogs and maybe adopt some dogs,” said Kim Kelley, marketing manager of Barefoot Landing.
The next WonderFall event will be Oktoberfest, which will be on Saturday, October 4.
