Recap: High Water Festival 2026

The 2026 High Water Festival went down on April 18-19, 2026, and we were so excited to be there! The festival takes place every year at Riverfront Park in S. Charleston, SC. It’s an absolutely beautiful place to spend a weekend. Riverfront Park is located right on Cooper River and was formerly a Naval Base. It now features the Greater Charleston Naval Base Memorial, scenic nature paths, walkways around the river, and many historic homes.

I’ve been to quite a few music festivals, however none were quite like this. High Water Festival has streamlined a lot of things I think are missing in other places. Festival goers this year received wristbands which can be scanned upon entry into the festival grounds and well as different areas, like the V.I.P. sitting area. This was your pass to get in and out of the festival every day and it was easy! It was so fast, every line moved extremely quickly, it made navigating the festival a completely painless experience.

I also looked around the grounds during the day and at the end of every night and it was clean! While there are tons of staff to help festival goers at any time, High Water Festival has a pretty neat thing they also offer. They have a “Rock & Recycle” program where they give out recycling bags to anyone who wants to help and collect aluminum cans and cups during the day. Those who return with a full bag are issued a commemorative t-shirt. This was a really cool crowd anyway, but it definitely brought people out who took pride in keeping the grounds clean, it was such a great sight to see!

You can’t have a festival without music and High Water Festival features two big stages and the ability to see every artist who plays. The stages are just far enough apart to allow crowds to see both stages if they really want to. Each stage had a pit area, and then further back is where everyone could lay down a blanket and hang out for the day. The best part was no artists overlapped. While one stage was setting up, the other stage had a band or artist playing. This gave you the opportunity to catch every single artist on your list.

There were quite a few bars between stages for festival goers to get some drinks. They offered various alcoholic drinks from Weed Brewing Company, but it was also easy to get water, soda, lemonade, etc. The festival also featured multiple Hydration Stations just to refill your empty containers for free with water if you wished, I used those all day and they were so helpful.

Of course, we can’t forget the food. Was the food good? Indeed! There was so much to choose from, and I barely know where to start. There were tons of savory options with vendors selling everything from specialty burgers to Cajun food to lobster. Then fun things you may get from your local fair, like corndogs, funnel cakes, and deep-fried everything! The only real problem was choosing what you would like to eat because believe me, I wanted to try it all and I just didn’t have enough time to do so. You even had options where to enjoy your meal, whether you want to head back and hang by a stage, or under a tree in the park, maybe you want to hang out along the water watching boats pass by as you listen to music in the background.

A few brands brought some fun with them. Cabot Creamery worked giving out free samples of their various cheese products. Beatbox brought the party offering festival goers a place to chill out and play ping pong. White Claw offered a bar to hang out and even test out your skills with their giant Jenga game. Those are just a few of the unique experiences offered.

High Water also welcomed a lot of informative groups from the community. You could connect with Charleston Black Lives Matter, be trained on saving a life with Narcan, and many others. I initially came in for a music festival but left with more experiences than I even imagined. I did all these things and still had time for at least a glimpse of every artist who played throughout the entire weekend. Check out our galleries below from all the incredible artists who played at High Water this year.