12 Interesting facts about the 68 year old Beaufort Water Festival

The Beaufort Water Festival is the longest running festival on the entire east coast that is coordinated by volunteers only.Photo byPhil Heim/BeaufortPics

Now in it’s 68th year, the Annual Beaufort Water Festival has been bringing ten days of fun to the area with activities, sporting events, daily & nightly concerts and more since 1956. It’s the most fun you can have in Beaufort SC during the summertime.

Enjoy some fun and interesting facts about the annual Water Festival.

1. The Water Festival is the longest running festival on the entire east coast that is coordinated by volunteers only, with no paid employees.

2. The Beaufort Lions Club has been in charge of the Beaufort Water Festival parade since 1956.

3. It takes over 400 volunteers to plan and manage the events that make up the ten day Water Festival.

4. A different Water Festival commemorative t-shirt is produced each year, and are usually created exclusively by talented local Beaufort artists. No two shirts are the same.

5. It takes 1250 lbs of shrimp, 3000 ears of corn, 1000 lbs of sausage, 100 watermelons and 300 gallons of sweet tea to feed thousands of attendees a dinner of Frogmore stew at the Lowcountry Supper event at the annual Water Festival.

6. The first Beaufort Water Festival had a staff of only 15 volunteers running the whole show.

7. The times sure do change. Back in the 1950s when the Water Festival started, it cost 50 cents to attend the Water Festival Beauty Pageant and one dollar per couple to attend the Water Festival Ball.

8. The River Dance event used to be called the Street Dance and it was held on a closed down Bay Street in downtown, but that changed after the 1990s and it moved into the Waterfront Park.

9. The Water Festival has only been canceled one time, in 2020, when it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

10. Tuesday night’s concert used to be called Tropical Tuesday. It was more recently renamed Hometown Tuesday, and is now called Island Time Tuesday. It's one of seven concerts held every year by the Water Festival, with some 12 to 15 different acts performing on stage.

11. The classic rock & roll bands Foghat and The Marshall Tucker Band each have performed live on stage at the Water Festival. Also, in 2017, Aaron Lewis, singer for the grunge/rock band Staind performed at the annual Concert in the Park.

12. Since the Beaufort Water festival started in 1956, there have been 68 different Commodores, six of which have been women; in 1959, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022.

Info compiled from the Beaufort Water Festival website, Steve Hiers and Craig Reaves.