"Everyone capitalizes on Christmas. We can help capitalize on Halloween," Walters told MyHorryNews. She was describing the giant inflatable "air sculptures" now sitting on rooftops along the Little River waterfront. There's an octopus on Hurricane Juel's, a pirate creeping over the roof of the Pilot House and a huge crab on Crab Catchers.
The 20th Little River ShrimpFest took this weekend, Oct. 10 and 11. The Little River Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center organized it, with more than 200 vendors and two stages. For years the waterfront calendar has hung on that weekend and the Blue Crab Festival in May. The next seven weeks on Mineola Avenue look like something else. The waterfront's businesses are trying to fill the stretch between festivals with reasons to come down on an ordinary Thursday night. Meanwhile the county's redesign of the district is still being drawn around the two weekends when the crowds are biggest.
Halloween runs on a weekly schedule
WaterFright Nights is built to repeat. The decorations stay up, and the events run several nights a week instead of all on one weekend. Walters said the props came from Chad Everette of Galaxy Productions and are "production-worthy," not store-bought.
The free, self-guided Trail of Fear runs from Little River Landing to the entrance of Crab Catchers through Oct. 31. The walk-through haunted house is at the end of it. The Little River Chamber of Commerce event page lists tickets at $25 and hours of 7 to 11 p.m. Here's what's left as of this week:
- Haunted house: Oct. 15 through 18, Oct. 22 through 25, Oct. 29 through 31, and a final night on Nov. 1
- Trunk or Treat: Oct. 29 at Little River Landing
- Costume contest: Oct. 30 at Hurricane Juel's
- Fright Nights Passport: check-ins through Oct. 31. According to the Chamber, five or more stops enter you in a drawing for a Little River prize package valued at over $500
The Passport shows what the Chamber is going for. Its check-ins pair attractions like the haunted house with visits to waterfront restaurants, so one evening covers several stops. A festival puts tens of thousands of people in the district for two days. Fright Nights spreads a smaller crowd over five weeks.
Walters was clear that the idea is to complement other towns' Halloween events. "We're not competing with Conway," she said. She added that people coming from out of town might stay an extra day and visit both. Downtown Conway's Halloween season is drawing people to the North Strand in October, and Little River wants a share of those trips.
Why the weeks between festivals matter to the businesses
There's a business reason for the push, and a few miles up the road The Star Tavern shows it. Owner Ron Johnson opened The Star in 2014 to bring together musicians and fans of classic rock, and patrons are used to hearing live bands there for free. MyHorryNews reported in September that Johnson plans to start a $5 cover charge to help pay the bands. He pointed to large increases in liability insurance as a major part of the squeeze. He also named heavier Highway 17 traffic, "especially on festive weekends," among the challenges.
So the festival weekends that bring in visitors can make an ordinary night harder for regulars to reach. In the same story, Cheryl Kilday, president and CEO of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, described a mixed picture for restaurants across the area:
"It's a mixed bag," Kilday said. "Some do really well."
She said owners are dealing with higher liability costs, new server-training requirements, and rising food and labor costs. Some are changing their hours, and a few are putting their businesses up for sale as leasing costs rise. For a district whose biggest days come on two weekends a year, those costs keep coming every week. A $5 cover at The Star and a $25 haunted house on Mineola Avenue answer the same problem. Each one puts a price on something that used to come free with the visit, and each depends on people showing up on regular nights.
As of the September report, the music at The Star continues, along with the drinks and food.
The new additions are small, and built for repeat visits
What's opened along the waterfront in 2026 fits the same pattern. Each is a short stop on an evening walk.
Mz. Freeze, an ice cream shop at 4484 Mineola Ave., opened at noon on a Friday, according to a MyHorryNews story the paper's Little River archive dates July 18, 2026.
Mako's Marina Bar N Grill at 4492 Water Front Ave. laid out plans in April for a tiki bar and a later marina expansion, according to The Sun News. By June, MyHorryNews was reporting a tiki bar open over the water in front of Mako's. The Sun News described a second phase with a boardwalk from the Big "M" Casino boat to Seabrisa's. No timeline has been reported.
Chianti South at 2109 U.S. 17 is coming back under new ownership led by restaurateur James Lane. A WhatNow's Sept. 30 report said the reopening was expected before winter, with no fixed date. The restaurant closed in 2024.
November gives the waterfront two more dates
Once the Halloween decorations come down, the calendar goes quiet until two events that both rely on the waterfront itself.
Saturday, Nov. 7: the Rotary 5K
The 18th Annual Rotary Club of Little River 5K starts at 8 a.m. at the Little River Waterfront, 4490 Mineola Ave. Registration is on the race page. The Little River Rotary Club also ran golf-cart shuttles along Lakeside Drive and Mineola Avenue during ShrimpFest, so the club is closely tied to how the district handles crowds.
Saturday, Nov. 28: the Intracoastal Christmas Regatta
According to the regatta's organizers, the decorated flotilla leaves Little River Inlet at 5 p.m., heads south and reaches Dock Holidays Marina around 7 p.m. Boats gather at Tilghman's Point at 4:30 p.m. The organizers list Grand Harbour Marina, Blue Drum Waterfront, Crab Catchers and Hurricane Juel's as viewing spots on the Little River waterfront. They also say you can watch from anywhere along the route with a view of the water, as long as you're mindful of businesses and residents. The detailed viewing map on the site is still labeled with 2025 locations, so it may not be updated for this year.
Like the Trail of Fear, the regatta is a free evening event that brings people back to the restaurants on Mineola Avenue after dark, weeks after the last festival tent has come down.
The county's plan is still built around festival weekends
All of this is happening while Horry County works out what the district should become. The county held a public workshop in late September on walkability, streetscapes, waterfront access, gathering space, connectivity, parking and festival support.
WPDE's coverage showed how much festival crowds drive the design work. The station reported that the Blue Crab Festival and ShrimpFest draw tens of thousands of people a year and leave the area "clogged" with parking and access problems. Stakeholders named emergency access for big events, infrastructure and parking as their top three concerns. Chris Chockley of the engineering firm Bolton & Menk said the concepts aim to separate people on foot from cars, "because right now it's all intermingled," and to connect people to the waterway, "whether it's a boardwalk or additional sidewalks."
The project is still at an early stage. Chockley called it "exploratory," a high-level design phase for testing what the community supports. In late September, the team expected to present a master plan to the public within three to four months and take more input then. Counting from then, that's roughly late December through January. The money side is narrower. MyHorryNews reported in June that $3.5 million in the FY2027 budget brought restored waterfront funding to $7 million, for streetscape improvements. A boardwalk was only a possible later option.
That makes this fall a useful look at how the district works on ordinary nights. For five weeks, walkers on the Trail of Fear share Mineola Avenue with diners and cars, from Little River Landing to Crab Catchers. Those are the same conditions the master plan is meant to fix, just at a scale smaller than a festival. When the plan goes public this winter, there will be another round of public input.
Life on the waterfront this fall, from Fright Nights to The Star Tavern's new cover charge, is part of how a property here gets valued, along with the comparable sales. If you own near Mineola Avenue or along the Intracoastal and want to know how the waterfront plan and the district's growing calendar could affect your property's value, Liat Edri offers a free home valuation built on local knowledge of Little River. Reach out whenever you're ready to talk it through.
