Fabulous Water Festival Grand Parade draws crowd

It seemed as though all of Beaufort turned out for the Water Festival Grand Parade on Saturday as local business, elected officials and organizations paraded in proper Beaufort fashion through the streets of historic downtown.

One of the most popular traditions of the annual Water Festival’s events, the parade draws big crowds and the ‘grandaddy’ of all Beaufort parades never disappoints.  From the Pirettes float, water tanks that sprayed the crowd (sometimes relentlessly), funny cars, dogs, farmers, water guns, candy, firetrucks and a variety of entries from local organizations, it all adds up to a day of fun for everyone.

Some of the winners in the judging of floats included Veterans Tribute of Savannah who won for Most Patriotic float, Regions Bank took the award for the Most Festive Music Presentation, and the Best Presentation of the 58th Beaufort Water Festival Theme was the Beaufort Shag Club.  For more information, visit the Beaufort Water Festival at http://bftwaterfestival.com.

Also on Saturday, Brandy Gray was named the 59th Beaufort Water Festival Commodore during the Change of Watch Ceremony and received her official blazer from her great uncle who was the 3rd Water Festival Commodore, Sammy Gray.  The ceremony was held on top of Old Bay Marketplace on Bay Street.

For hundreds of photos of the 58th Annual Beaufort Water Festival Grand Parade, and over 1,000 photos of all of this year’s stellar events, visit our Water Festival Photo Gallery.
Photos by Angela Halopulos and Ryan Smith.