NORTH CHARLESTON — Riverfront Park is revving up for an annual two-day music festival featuring artists and genres ranging from indie rock to folk to pop and beyond.
High Water Music Festival, which will take place April 18-19, was founded by Charleston-based duo Shovels & Rope in 2017. Since then, the duo has cut ties with the festival, but it continues to be put on annually by C3 Presents, also behind Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and dozens of others.
High Water has continued to grow over the years, featuring national headliners such as Noah Kahan, Hozier and Lord Huron as well as many local artists like Easy Honey, Susto and Babe Club.
In High Water tradition, the first day of the festival will again kick off with a Charleston band. This year Winyah, a Lowcountry group whose music has filled local stages, dive bars and hangouts, will kick off the weekend with a performance at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 18.
The group, named after Winyah Bay where most of the members grew up, found the inspiration for their indie rock songs in their coastal hometown.
“It’s really a full-circle moment for us — especially to play on stage with other bands that we admire,” said Thomas Rowland, Winyah’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist.
The group, named after Winyah Bay in Georgetown where most of the members grew up, found the inspiration for their indie rock songs through the humid nights, endless highways and small town life found in the Palmetto State. Now, they reside in Charleston.
Winyah formed in 2023 and, with only a few songs under their belt, the band was asked to perform at Bonnaroo in 2024. They played more than 140 shows last year and dropped their first album, “Lot To Learn,” which came in at No. 10 on The Post and Courier and Free Times’ Best of SC Music list.
The band is represented by Atlas Touring, a Charleston-based booking and management agency that’s also behind local acts such as Brave Baby, Damn Skippy and Little Stranger.
Winyah is currently wrapping up a spring tour, No Place I’d Rather Be, during which they ventured out to the West Coast for the first time. Despite their regional, coastal sounds, the band has found that crowds react to their music miles away from their hometown.
Winyah will perform at High Water Festival, which takes place April 18-19 at North Charleston’s Riverfront Park.
“It’s surreal to have the kind of reaction we’re having out this far,” Rowland told The Post and Courier.
The band will spend some time in the Lowcountry after their performance at High Water before picking the tour back up in the summer. The members are also currently working on their second album, hoping some time back home might spark a few ideas.
“Charleston is such a special place for us. We used to do gigs on the second-floor stage at The Windjammer. And if you told us back then that we’d be playing High Water, those kids wouldn’t believe you,” Rowland said.
Winyah will play the Edisto Stage at High Water, which takes over North Charleston’s Riverfront Park, 1061 Everglades Ave. Single-day general admission starts at $149 per person. Head to highwater.com/tickets to grab your tickets before they’re gone.