With the Celebration of Lights Off, Conway's December Moves to Main Street

Conway will not hold its Celebration of Lights this year. On October 1 the city canceled both the light display and the Under the Lights 5K, as WPDE reported. City officials said a shuttle will run along Marina Drive all month, which leaves too little time to install a display that takes about 90 days to set up. Everyone who bought a 5K ticket has been refunded.

The rest of the season is still on, and it all happens close together. Almost every remaining event takes place within a few blocks of City Hall at Third Avenue and Main Street, or on the Festival Lawn in the Riverfront District. Most fall on Thursday evenings, with two Saturdays and one late night at the end of the year. For anyone driving in from Lakeside Crossing or elsewhere around Conway, this December takes a few trips downtown to enjoy, not one night behind the windshield.

The Season at a Glance

The shopping weekend gets the downtown stores into holiday mode. The tree lighting starts the Thursday series, the Saturday events fill the weekends in between, and the fireworks close out the year.

Thanksgiving Weekend Opens the Shops' Season

Conway Downtown Alive's events calendar lists Black Friday on November 27 starting at 8 a.m., and Small Business Saturday the next day. In most years these two days fall in the same weeks the Marina Drive lights are going up. This year the downtown shops are the main holiday draw from Thanksgiving weekend on, and the same stores will keep later hours on the December Thursdays below.

For holiday shopping, those two days and the Thursday nights work as one plan. Browse on the weekend after Thanksgiving, then come back on a Thursday evening in December to pick up what you set aside, with music playing outside City Hall.

Thursdays Carry the Season

Downtown Conway calls its holiday series the Rivertown Christmas Celebration. According to the Conway Downtown Alive event listing, it starts on Thursday, December 3 with the City of Conway Christmas Tree Lighting on Main Street, which runs from 6 to 6:30 p.m. at Main Street and Third Avenue.

The next two Thursdays, December 10 and 17, have activities from 6 to 8 p.m. Downtown shops stay open until 8 p.m. both nights, and ensembles perform on the front steps of Conway City Hall at Third Avenue and Main Street. That puts the tree lighting and the performances on the same corner, so a resident who learns the spot on December 3 can find it again the next two weeks.

The December 10 evening is billed as the Rivertown Christmas Celebration & Living Windows. In its coverage of the 2021 season, My Horry News described Living Windows as interactive storefront displays set up by downtown merchants, with live actors drawn from friends, family and neighbors. That was the tradition a few years ago, and the name is back on this year's calendar. Each window is up to the merchant, so what you see will depend on which storefronts take part.

A few things make the Thursday nights easier to plan:

• The tree lighting is short. It lasts 30 minutes, from 6 to 6:30 p.m., so arrive on time.
• The later Thursdays last two hours. The December 10 and 17 events run 6 to 8 p.m., which leaves time for dinner downtown before or after.
• Shop hours match the event. Downtown stores stay open until 8 p.m. on those Thursdays, the same time the celebration ends.

The Saturdays in Between

The two Saturdays between the Thursday nights have their own events. The Conway Rotary Rivertown Reindeer Run is still happening on Saturday, December 5, according to WPDE's report on the cancellation. The Under the Lights 5K was canceled along with the light display, which makes the Reindeer Run the Rotary-hosted holiday race on this year's December calendar.

The following Saturday, December 12, the Conway Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade goes down Main Street at 10 a.m. The event listing gives the location as Main Street and Fourth Avenue, one block from the City Hall corner where the Thursday performances happen. The parade starts in the morning, while the Thursday events start after dark, so it fits families with young children and anyone who would rather skip the evening crowds.

Groups and businesses in the parade have their own deadline. The Chamber requires participants to attend a meeting on Tuesday, December 8 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 229 N Main Street, and says it will share any confirmed changes to staging or the route before the event. If you plan to watch from a particular spot on Main Street, check the Chamber's parade page again during parade week.

Midnight on the Festival Lawn

The year ends at the river. Conway Downtown Alive is presenting Conway's New Year's Eve Fireworks Display at the Festival Lawn, 7 Elm Street, in the Riverfront District, sponsored by Healthcare Partners of South Carolina and My Horry News. The DJ and food trucks open at 10:30 p.m. Zambelli Fireworks launches the show at exactly midnight, and organizers describe it as a quick, rapid-fire display. The event is free, and guests are welcome to bring chairs or tailgate.

The fireworks start right at 12:00 and the show is short, so anyone still parking at 11:58 could miss most of it. Plan to be on the lawn by the time the food trucks open.

The Riverfront Is Being Built Out for Years Ahead

The Festival Lawn is next to the riverfront project with the biggest long-term effect on Conway. In July, City Council unanimously approved a construction contract with H, K & W Marine Construction for the Kingston Boardwalk Trail and Ferry Project, as WFXB reported. The project appears as a priority in both the city's Riverfront and Downtown Master Plan and the Conway Pathways and Trails Plan.

For now, the project covers ADA-accessible permanent and floating docks, plus nearly 2,000 feet of elevated wooden boardwalk through wetlands and woods that ends at Depot Road. Right now the only way to cross the Waccamaw River on foot or by bike is the historic Waccamaw River Memorial Bridge on Highway 501 Business. The boardwalk will eventually link downtown to the Waccamaw River Park on Depot Road, and the longer-term plan adds a bike lane toward the Coastal Carolina campus.

As of WMBF's July 22 report, construction had not started, and Deputy City Administrator Mary Catherine Hyman estimated the project would take about a year to finish. The city has also described plans for an electric ferry on the Waccamaw linking the Riverwalk and downtown, according to WMBF. On that timeline, the boardwalk would not be finished by New Year's Eve, which is held on the Festival Lawn nearby.

If you live in Lakeside Crossing or are thinking about a move to Conway and want to talk about how downtown, the riverfront and the 55+ communities nearby fit together day to day, Brendan D'Anna is glad to walk through it with you, without any pressure. Let's Connect.