Sunrift Adventures serves as casting call location for Survivor

On Jan. 21, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Sunrift Adventures in Travelers Rest, S.C., will play host to at least 500 very eager and possibly quite wild contestants, all vying for a spot in the next “Survivor” TV show. Click here to view the YouTube post.

Matthew Craft, marketing director for the outdoor specialty store, contacted SNEWS® to let us know that the store was turning this into much more than just a casting call.

“The guys from CBS chose Greenville as one of the few locations around America to be a casting call location for the next season of ‘Survivor,’ and as a result, we were approached by our local news channel affiliate — www.wspa.com — about us co-sponsoring the event and hosting the casting call in our store,” Craft told us. “We jumped on the opportunity and it has literally exploded with hundreds of phone calls and tons of emails.”

He added, “We have had people flying in from as far away as eight hours to camp out at our store for the chance to make it on ‘Survivor.’ There will probably be a couple of us from the store trying out too. Trying out consists of filling out six pages of paperwork and then spending two minutes in front of the camera.”

Sunrift Adventures — www.sunrift.com — is a 6,000-square-foot outdoor specialty store located at 1 Center Street in Traveler’s Rest. “The town is literally built around our space,” said Craft. The store has over 600 canoes and kayaks in the shop and “boasts over 300 different types of footwear,” Craft said.

Craft told us that although the original thought was there might be as many as 500 applicants, the number could mushroom to over 700. Sunrift is beefing up security by hiring two off-duty policemen. In addition, the store will be stationing Porta Potties and will bring in food and drinks to keep everyone happy. (Papa John’s, Krispy Kreme, Pepsi and Chick-fil-A are providing attendees with food.)

Sunrift is opening up a two-acre field behind the store so folks can camp out the night before and enjoy a bonfire party. “I’ve also contacted Confluence, Outdoor Sports Marketing, and a few other local reps to see if they want to display gear, give away products, have a drawing so they can have added exposure too.”

To ensure there’s plenty of caffeine available for party-goers, tired employees, contestants and CBS production folk, Craft told us Leopard Forest Coffee Shop, located a block away from Sunrift, will be open 24 hours from Jan. 20-21.

Once the event actually kicks off, Craft said, “We will have three mobile camera stages in our store. We will have about 16 employees working that day, countless volunteers and 15 or so people from the CBS production team.”

To try out for “Survivor,” a potential contestant must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen and in excellent physical and mental health. Two forms of ID and a completed registration form are also required (visit www.sunrift.com or www.wspa.com to download). Oh, and be prepared to shoot a two-minute video clip explaining why you think you should be chosen as a “Survivor” contestant.

Any industry member interested in learning more or even trying out should contact Craft by email at matt@sunrift.com.

–Michael Hodgson