Water Festival

I have heard about Water Festival ever since moving to Beaufort and I can officially say it lived up to the hype!  Water Festival is a week-long event, held each year in July and has been a lowcountry tradition since 1956.  It is THE event of the summer in Beaufort.  Between concerts and parades, fireworks and races, there is truly something for everyone, and more than anyone can possibly do in a week.





During the days, the place to be is on the water.  Thousands of boats are out on the river or anchored on the sandbar .  I have never seen anything like the sandbar parties in Beaufort - one day there was even an impromptu concert on the sandbar!  In the evenings, the festivities occur on the waterfront downtown.  We kicked off our first WaterFest with a LoCash + Canaan Smith country concert on Saturday night.  It was a blast!  The festivities continued throughout the week, with a live band featuring a different style of music each night.  We sat out on the porch of Panini's on Tuesday night and enjoyed wood-fired pizzas while listening to the awesome 80's band that opened for the Beatles Tribute band.  Live music and cold drinks on the water make it easy to feel like you are on vacation!  Finally, we finished the week out at the 80s + 90s cover band concert at Friday night's River Dance.

Sandbar concert photo courtesy of ESPB

It was such a fun week and run extremely well.  The weather turned out beautiful (for South Carolina!) all week and I can't even complain about the price of drinks -- $3 tall boy ciders/beers inside of a concert?!  Beaufort - you are wonderful :)