Charleston’s annual High Water Festival took place once again at Riverfront Park for its 7th year on April 26th and 27th. With many people saying this year was the most packed they have seen, the festival included notable artists such as Lord Huron, Arcade Fire, The Backseat Lovers, Mt. Joy, and more.
As an attendee of both days, I made an effort to watch each artist’s set and get a good mix of how the lineup influenced the experience. Especially noting that this was the first year without co-curators and Charleston locals Shovels & Rope, who have been the main curators for the festival up until now—meaning that 2025 was solely determined by Live Nation.
The inevitable power of Live Nation handling this event is something that leaves a lot of locals weary about how this festival is going to adapt. Shovels & Rope mentioned how this played a role in their departure with the festival in their interview with Charleston’s Post & Courier last year in regards to the economic direction and disagreements of continuing the festival, which had trickled down to the attendees in outrageous ticket and vendor prices, parking issues, and overall experience.
Another big point to make in this year’s review, which we also discussed in our 2024 reviews, is the lack of local artists. There was only one local act again this year, Easy Honey (well-deserved), who opened the festival at 1:30 on Saturday. It would be cool to see High Water include something similar to Bonnaroo’s “The Who Stage”, where they have up and coming artists perform (including Charleston’s own The Psycodelics this year).
Obviously, Riverfront park is small and already fills up with just the two stages, but this would not only help with the lineup variety, but give local artists a chance to reach an audience in a town where there are barely any opportunities to play for crowds of this size.
Although I just mentioned my opinionated view on the festival, this year did have a great turnout and I do want to emphasize that I did enjoy my time with some festival highlights from the weekend.
Day One – April 26th, 2025
The first day, like I mentioned above, began with Easy Honey, which was inspiring as always to see a local band up on the Edisto Stage. The crowd began to trickle in during their set as the weather warmed up under the sun, setting the mood for the rest of the day to have a heavy indie atmosphere right off the bat.
Joy Oladokun
My favorite and most memorable set of the first day was Joy Oladokun, who I had not heard of prior to this. There was more of a laid-back, country feel to her set, which makes sense after seeing she has features with Noah Kahan and Chris Stapleton. A storm warning pushed the set time back and interrupted the middle of the set, but the rain held back to just a sprinkle, which cooled off everyone in the crowd for a brief moment.
Mt. Joy
Mt. Joy pulled the biggest attention and I think that they were the best balance for this year’s festival. They went on right as the sun set, creating a beautiful ambience over the Cooper River.
Everyone was dancing along to all of their songs, and I even caught myself singing the words to more songs than I thought I knew by them. They also performed a cover of “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus, which lightened the mood and energized the crowd in the middle of their mellower set.
I had not seen Mt. Joy before, and this was one of the performances that made me immediately become a fan for the sole purpose of remembering how it felt to hear those songs in that environment. I have had “Julia” on repeat ever since.
The Backseat Lovers
The Backseat Lovers played on the Edisto stage right after Mt. Joy and definitely gravitated toward the younger crowd. I think that they were the one of the bigger artists on the lineup that the younger attendees cared about on the first day, and I remember watching people sprint over to the stage as soon as Mt. Joy ended.
I also remember seeing a lot of people immediately drop what they were doing as soon as they started “Kilby Girl”, which is their most streamed song on Spotify at 388 million streams. I was not the biggest fan of BSL beforehand but hearing their performance live made me gain a newfound interest and respect for them.
Lord Huron
The first day was headlined by Lord Huron on the Stono stage, who had the most theatrical performance of the first day with the band’s energy and the props on stage. However, I left halfway through the set to avoid traffic.
Overall, day one had a much more relaxed vibe in terms of audience. There were a lot of people preferring to lay on their blanket and sunbathe, enjoying the music from more of a distance and hanging out with whoever they came with, probably because of the consistent pedal steel that was present in almost every set.
Day Two – April 27th, 2025
While I have less to say about the first day, day two knocked me out of park right off the bat, starting with Goldie Boutilier. The performance started off with an audio track of a story before her and her band came on stage, with immediate choreography and interaction with the audience. Her interaction with the audience stood out to me most, because it created such a different mood than what we had seen the day prior.
Goldie’s stage presence got people more into the music even if they were unfamiliar, and gave everyone something to pay attention to and follow along. She also talked in between the songs the most which I think was a good play as the first artist of the day.
I was curious about how this set was going to change the mood of the day since it was completely different, even with a bit of a jazz influence on top of her very impressive vocals and punchy bass lines that reminded me of Fleetwood Mac, especially her song “Cowboy Gangster Politician” which she led into with a dialogue about the three ‘characters’.
She also opened up about her personal journey with her music career and how she has been playing music for almost a decade, “I thought I missed my shot, but now I am here at High Water, I guess it is never too late!”
Ethan Tasch
The beginning of day two had more energy from the pop influence and undertone of the artists, which continued right through Ethan Tasch on the Stono stage, who kept the upbeat tempo through his set. His set had a produced, synthesized element to the indie/folk root of his acoustic guitar playing that blended perfectly from Goldie’s music. There was a very noticeable flow that was paired well.
Wild Rivers
Wild Rivers mellowed things out in the middle of the day with their laid-back, acoustic over more R&B leaning harmonies right around 4pm which was a nice break in the day and also a solid finale for the transition into the hour long sets.
Trampled by Turtles, Waxahatchee
Trampled By Turtles and Waxahatchee followed Wild Rivers and felt the purest to folk/americana to me on the second day which was a nice separation from the pop undertone that the first half of the day had.
Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire headlined the second day, which was highly anticipated by most attendee’s I spoke to. Their entire performance was colorful, electronic, and kept the crowd dancing the entire time. They played a lot of songs from their newest album “Pink Elephant” as well as fan favorites, including “Everything Now” from their 2017 release which I was looking forward to hearing from them.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, High Water felt successful this year but I think there is a lot to say about how it could progress to be better, especially noting what I mentioned previously about lineup issues and bringing up again from last year that a majority of the performers were white.
For the expense of the tickets, I think there would be more to gain if they took advantage of the fact that Charleston has a supportive community and helped to uplift it a bit more—not even necessarily through musical acts, but through every aspect. There could definitely be a push for more local vendors that exemplify the culture, lifestyle, and arts that are unique to Charleston.
With that, it didn’t seem like many improvements were made from the 2024 festival. I am curious to attend next year and see what happens now that Live Nation will be the decision-makers again.
Enjoy two full photo galleries from the festival below.
High Water 2025 Photo Gallery – @gracekreiderphoto
High Water 2025 Photo Gallery – @marenmcgphoto
