High Water Music Festival — Local services in North Charleston

I've been to no less than 20 music festivals all over the country ... large and small ... Highwater Music Festival falls on the small side of most festivals, so given its size, you would think it would be better organize (meaning smaller festival = less moving parts, fewer acts, etc., but it wasn't.

Pro's ... One: It's in Charleston, SC, my hometown and one of my very favorite places to visit. (I live in Florida) Two: The venue is located on the Ashley River and it is beautiful. Three: The festival is in April so it's not a bazillion degrees yet.

Con's ... Festival layout (utilization of the actual festival site) was horrible! The food vendors were all the way to the back of the site making it nearly impossible to get to where they were located from the main stage without having to cross through the crowd at the other stage or walking literally around the whole site just to get to the back of OTHER side of the park. As with most of the festivals I've attended, the food was expensive for what you got. However, I'll admit, I did expect better quality since it's Charleston, so I was disappointed. The stages are set up so that music from one stage bleeds over to the other stage, which means staggered performances are a must. There were a few vendors who were selling items, but they were ridiculously overpriced. Yeti, one of the main sponsors, really missed an opportunity for huge sales by not having laser engraved Highwater Festival tumbler in a basic color (white or black). The only yeti engraved item was sold at the merchandise stand and was not one of the tumblers. (I know, you can't please everyone) Drink line wait times were ridiculous & something I've only experienced at huge festivals. We waited 35 minutes in the drink line before giving up. Merchandise lines were just as bad. Again, the food vendors were poorly positioned. We didn't eat the second day because it was impossible to get back to the food if you were at the front of the park (by the river or at the main stage. The sound system was muffled - especially on Sunday. (Bummer)

& don't get me started on the parking ... There was NO rhyme or reason to the parking situation, not to mention, there were no shuttles from the "parking lots," which were up to 3/4 miles away (or further on Sunday). North Charleston Police (sorry guys) were clueless. I think they were just as ill-informed as the rest of the attendees. Sunday night they were turning cars around and routing, the absolutely horrific traffic, down a dead end road (I think it was blocked off), which only made the situation worse. This meant every car had to follow the road to the point where it was blocked off, do a 3-point turn, to go back in the direction from which they were headed before they were re-routed down the dead end. Right hand definitely did not know what the left had was doing. While I love Charleston and was excited to see Jack White, Highwater Music Festival was definitely a...

Music was great but the lineup didn’t quite live up to last year’s. Hozier was excellent.

The rest of the experience was awful. Rained a lot more on day 2 than was forecasted and it became very, very cold. They “sold out” of sweatshirts immediately. Of course the merch staff all took sweatshirts for themselves to wear. Some staff were even selling them for $200+ cash or venmo AFTER they "sold out". I watched several people bite the bullet and buy them for that price. You also had to stand in the merch line for over an hour (in the rain) before being told they were "sold out" - a simple sign or verbal announcement would've saved a lot of pain. I know at least half the people in line were wanting a sweatshirt and ended up missing a show for no reason.

There is no cover or shade anywhere unless you are staff. VIP holders had one shady spot but it wasn't much. They had no problem buying and setting up giant canopies for the all the staff though!

Trying to leave was a mess. It literally took 3 hours to leave the lots and no one moved an inch for the majority of it. No point in hiring dozens of cops to direct traffic if they’re all gonna sit around playing with their flashlights. Half of them just sat in their patrol cars all night. The cops and event parking staff were all horribly rude to everyone for no reason too. After an hour I got out to talk to parking staff and all she said was "it'll start moving soon" (it didn't). She wouldn't even look at me. I then asked a cop if there was an accident or something and he got so pissed off at me for no reason and just started yelling at me. He wasn't busy, I wasn't interrupting anything, he was just leaning on his patrol car playing with his phone the whole 3 hours - I didn't see anyone else talk to him. We got back to our hotel at 3:00am. We left early the first night and had no issues, but I heard it was even worse for those who stayed for the headliner that night.

Definitely not worth the $350+ ticket. Not to mention drink options inside were either Bud Light or White Claw (gross) for $13 a can. Or you could get a 1/3 glass of wine for $16 (I googled the wine and it's $9 a bottle at the grocery store). I understand upcharging at an event, but this was highway robbery. My SO and I went together and our costs were: general admission ticket x2, plus hotel (2 nights at the cheapest hotel within 15 mins of the venue), food inside (you can't bring outside snacks), a few drinks per person (not even enough to get buzzed), 2 pieces of merchandise per person, parking fee, and we spent over $2,000! That's just festival related charges and not including things like eating/shopping in Charleston that we decided to do. Just for comparison, you could spend a week in the best Disney resort for that price.

I would give 1 star but the music experience was genuinely very good. The sound and stages were top quality, everything was done professionally...

This year was my first attending High Water and I’ve got some pros and cons, with my ultimate rating of 5 stars. Here’s why:

Cons: -Congested Parking options, lack of shuttle, and horrible horrible traffic flow OUT of the festival. This was by far the worst part of the entire experience on day 1. We were stuck in stand-still traffic for a little under 2 hours before being able to leave. This was worse for those relying on ride sharing or Uber/lyft. 1 of the only 2 ways out of the festival location was blocked off in order to allow music artists out, which is understandable but hindered fans to a fault. -The utter lack of cell service. This is to be expected at any festival or public gathering, but when paired with the traffic situation and trying to locate friends, it became a hazard. -Lack of signage or direction to entrances and exits. For the vast majority of my walk to and from the festival, I was relying on following the crowd. Thankfully whoever was in front of the thousands of us seemed to have land navigation skills that of a navy seal.

Pros: -For the size of the park, and the high number of people, crowd control stayed manageable. I’ve been to festivals with larger land spaces but fewer areas for walking. I could get through the festival to anywhere with ease. -Concession and Merch stands were quick and always had short, if none at all, lines. This excludes the merch stand during the last hours of day 2 because of everyone trying to get merch last minute. (It’s me) -After day 1 and all of the horrible experiences people went through, High Water made public announcements and SEVERAL changes within a short 24 hour period to help us the next day. WiFi booths were added to help ride sharers and Uber seekers, more police were brought in to help the flow of traffic and I have a small theory that they had the headliner preform one of their biggest song sooner than planned so a lot of people left earlier than the previous night. (That’s just my theory though).

Overall I think High Water was a great fun time. The vibes were immaculate and High Water and even the city of Charleston stated they were blown away with this years popularity. They made so many positive updates based on feedback within 1 day and I cannot IMAGINE the improvements they’ll make before next year. This is a festival of Indie Artists and therefore I consider them an Indie festival, meaning I’ll allow them time to catch up, make changes and power through mistakes. I’m excited for the next lineup and will be coming back to see the improvements!!

(High water if you’re seeing this, add Lapel pins to your merch...