As the festival begins, this year’s Commodore looks back on more than a decade of volunteering
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
As the 70th annual Beaufort Water Festival gets underway, Commodore Dusty Vickers says the reality of leading the community’s signature event still hasn’t completely sunk in.
“It hit me, but it hasn’t hit me,” Vickers said just days before festival setup began. “We start loading in tomorrow, so I’m sure it’ll feel real tomorrow.”
For Vickers, becoming Commodore is the culmination of more than a decade of volunteer service, countless late nights and a commitment to an event he says feels more like family than work.
His Beaufort Water Festival story began around 2012 while working for The Greenery Inc., helping deliver trailers and landscaping materials during festival setup and teardown. Although he wasn’t officially part of the festival organization at the time, the experience introduced him to the volunteers who make the event happen.
By 2014, he earned his first director’s badge as parks director, overseeing many of the same setup responsibilities that first brought him into the organization.
What kept him coming back wasn’t the recognition or the title.
“The family feeling, the camaraderie,” Vickers said. “Everybody will bend over backwards to help anybody.”
That sense of community has also required sacrifice.
Like many Commodores before him, Vickers said the festival has demanded long hours away from his wife and young children. On top of his Water Festival responsibilities, he also spent the last year and a half building a 1,600-square-foot addition onto his home.
As his Commodore year comes to an end, he admits the moment is bittersweet.
“I’m ready for a vacation,” he said with a laugh. “Time has been served.”
Still, he says he’s confident the organization is in good hands.
“We’ve got a good group of coordinators around the table and directors and staff and chair people,” he said.
Every Commodore leaves a personal mark on the festival, and Vickers introduced several new ideas during his year.
One was the addition of a 3D archery tournament, inspired by his own love of bow hunting. The inaugural event, held this spring, attracted nearly 50 participants competing on a course featuring three-dimensional animal targets, including deer, ducks, turkeys and hogs.
He’s also bringing comedy back to the festival.
Following Thursday night’s Lowcountry Supper, Brian Moote with Bored Teachers will perform after local musicians, bringing a comedy show back to the festival. Vickers said the event is reminiscent of entertainment the festival featured years ago and offers something different from the traditional musical lineup.
His theme for the year, “Sunny Days and Friendship Waves,” reflects what he believes the Beaufort Water Festival represents beyond its concerts and events.
Vickers describes the festival as “the reunion of reunions,” bringing together friends and families who may only see each other during those 10 days each summer.
“As we all grow apart and our kids get different ages, you might not see people as much anymore,” he said. “For those 10 days of festival, everybody’s going to come together.”
That broader vision also influenced this year’s official T-shirt artwork.
Rather than focusing solely on downtown Beaufort and Waterfront Park, the design features a boat on the river, live oak trees, a sunset and Hunting Island in the background.
“There’s so much more to offer than just the seawall,” Vickers said. “It’s the Beaufort Water Festival. It’s not the downtown Beaufort Water Festival.”
The festival will again operate with the Waterfront Park promenade closed because of ongoing construction, much as it did last year. Vickers said most events will remain downtown, with the Raft Race continuing to launch from The Sands in Port Royal. He also noted that the city’s temporary dock and access ramp near the promenade were expected to open in time for the festival.
While the Commodore often serves as the public face of the Beaufort Water Festival, Vickers is quick to redirect attention to the hundreds of volunteers working behind the scenes.
He credited the festival’s coordinators, directors, staff, chairpeople, sponsors and the many civic organizations whose volunteers work under the tents throughout the festival.
“A lot of people don’t realize all the people underneath the tents are from nonprofits or civic groups,” Vickers said. “That manpower is a necessity to make the festival happen.”
As another Beaufort Water Festival begins, Vickers says he’s looking forward to opening ceremonies, seeing Joe Nichols perform and watching the community come together for what he calls “the reunion of reunions.”
After more than a decade of volunteering, he’ll spend the next 10 days doing what he’s always done – helping make the festival happen – before handing the Commodore’s hat to someone else and, for the first time in years, taking a well-earned vacation.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.