Schott named 68th Commodore for 2024
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
With the Commodore’s Ball on Saturday night and the Blessing of the Fleet on Sunday morning, the 67th annual Beaufort Water Festival has ended.
The final evening of Water Festival featured the upbeat music from ACE Party Band and the announcement and first dance of the 68th Commodore and First Lady, Josh and Brooke Schott.
Schott is a Beaufort native and has been volunteering with the festival since 2001.
This year he acted as the Program Coordinator and was the “right-hand man” to Nutt as he planned the festival’s festivities.
The festival, which promotes 10 days of events in downtown Beaufort, had to contend with some days with temperatures higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but thankfully the precipitation (according to the Water Festival’s website, they do not use the word “rain”) that is common in Beaufort this time of year stayed away for the most part.
There were two days where the evening events had to be postponed for an hour due to lightning in the area, but once it was safe the concerts proceeded as planned.
The 67th Commodore James Nutt told The Island News that as far as he is concerned, the festival went just about as well as it could have.
His personal favorite night was Rockin’ the River, which featured a headlining act Led Zeppelin 2, but there is no denying that the most popular night was Motown Monday and the concert by Deas-Guyz.
“There is a reason why it has become a tradition to have them back,” Nutt said.
Nutt proceeded to say that, despite the heat and lack of wind, the turnout for Motown Monday was bigger than they have seen for a very long time.
Commodore Nutt also said that he was pleased to see that the changes, both public and behind the scenes that they made for this year’s festival seemed to help everything go very smoothly.
One such change that festival planners made was to require patrons to purchase tickets to this year’s Concert in the Park in advance of the event instead of at the gate.
He said that they have been working with the City of Beaufort after last year’s Concert in the Park, and they came up with a maximum attendance number in conjunction with the Fire Marshall.
“We tailored this entire festival to not even come close to that number,” Nutt said. “The experience, and having a pleasurable experience, was our main goal.”
As for next year, Nutt said that he is excited to see what his friend of nearly 20 years will do as Commodore.
“I have full confidence that he is going to throw a great festival,” Nutt said.
“I don’t want to say it’s going to be better than mine,” he added with a laugh, “but I can hope it will be close.”
He then added, in a more serious tone, that it really is not a competition, and if Commodore John Schott shatters expectations and it is record breaking then it will just end up benefiting the community.
Nutt said that he is excited to offer advice to the new Commodore and will be on his advisory committee because it is a big position and job to undertake.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She joined The Island News in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
