Crowds flocks to Atlantic Beach for the festival.
/ Ryan Naquin
The night time is the right time for vendors at Atlantic Beach Bikefest.
The Memorial Day weekend celebration brings hundreds of thousands of people to the Grand Strand, who during the day usually spend time on the beach or riding motorcycles.
However, when night falls, they flock to the streets of Atlantic Beach and vendors make the most of their opportunity.
"Seems like the beast comes out at night I don't know," say Fredrick McDuffie. His family runs the Mary and James Catering trailer on 29th Ave South in Atlantic Beach.
He says the lines begins when the suns goes down.
"Our biggest crowd comes in the wee hours of the morning when people should be asleep. But hey we stay out here to serve."
McDuffie says Friday night the family served people until the morning.
"We had the doors open still at 3 am. We were still selling food. We went and got a couple of hours to sleep on the cot and then we were back out here doing it all over again."
About 20 yards down the street, Kim Brooks experienced the same situation.
"We stayed here until approximately 4 o'clock in the morning," says Brooks.
The tent Brooks brought to Bikefest sells something no other vendor has...shoes. So far, her gamble is paying off.
"We came with a trailer load of stuff and half empty already. So it's very good business."
She's trying to get a new shipment to Atlantic Beach from her store in Florence, but she says women in heels keep buying her sandals, looking for an alternative.
"A lot of women in heels need flats."
This is Brook's and McDuffie's first Bikefest, and they both say so far it's a successful one.
"Yes, it is fruitful," says McDuffie. "We'll be back again next year."
"I can't believe what we came down here and what we've made so far," says Brooks. "We definately will be back next year."
