The Spring Water Festival being held next week in Williamston’s Mineral Spring Park will offer a variety of live entertainment for all ages. Country Legend T. G. Sheppard will headline entertainment on Saturday, August 27. He will perform many of his 21 number one hits from a career in the music business spanning 50 years.
Music lovers will also have the opportunity to see an up and coming teen singer from Chapin SC who is already making a name for herself across the state. Shelby Raye is a 15 year old who has a passion for all genres of music and will perform covers of current favorites by some of the top female country artists and some of her own.
In 2013, she decided she was ready to begin pursuing music as a legitimate career and since then has performed from karaoke bars, to USO Events, to being one of the opening acts for Sheryl Crow at The First Flush Festival in 2015.
During the last three years she has won a number of talent competitions including Lex Factor 2013, Okra Idol 2013, Irmo Middle School Talent Show 2013, Beaufort Water Festival Talent Show 2014, Lake Murray Idol 2014 and most recently the CCMF Battle of the Bands Road to the Beach.
She and her band were one of the four Carolina Country Music Fest (CCMF) Battle of the Band Winners and won the competition held in the Columbia area, and the opportunity to perform during the three day music festival in Myrtle Beach in June.
The Shelby Raye Band includes Shelby Raye on vocals and acoustic guitar, Daniel Ruple on lead guitar and acoustic guitar, Seth Boone on drums, Tim Jordan on bass guitar, Derek Bickley on rhythm guitar and Ashleigh Reeves backup vocals
Raye is currently working on her first EP featuring all new original material; a project spawned by a recent trip to Nashville.
Shelby Raye and her band will take the stage around 4:15 p.m. when they open for T. G. Sheppard. (Shelby Raye Band photo by George Herron Photography)
The festival will kick off at 6 p.m. Friday evening with live music, craft vendors, children’s rides and festival food. Friday night will feature beach music with the Royal Scotsmen Band and Carolina Coast Band. Both bands feature local musicians.
The Royal Scotsmen Band will be celebrating the 50th year of entertaining in the music business.
Led by Ed and Joe Chambers and joined by their sister Kim, the group performs Beach classics as well as original radio hits from their own CD’s.
Rounding out the group is Cheryl Bryson and Judd Terrell on keyboards, Mike Smith on guitar, Keith White on drums, Paul Fitzgerald, sax, and David Vandenburg, trumpet.
The Carolina Coast Band travels with a seven piece band which includes an award winning horn section that has backed artists such as Chicago and the Temptations.
They have performed with or shared the stage with many of the Beach Music greats including The Swingin’ Medallions, Percy Sledge, Chairmen Of The Board, Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs, The Embers, The Late Billy Scott and The Prophets, and many more. They will perform a variety of favorites and some of their own.
There will be entertainment all day Saturday on the amphitheater stage beginning at 10 a.m.
NASKA National Champions Gregory Rowe and Kimber Bentley will demonstrate the skills that have led them to national titles competing in the North America Sport Karate Association (NASKA). Buttons the Clown and other kids entertainment is also scheduled.
Music will begin at 11 a.m with Blue Sky Band (from Powdersville), followed by Odyssey (of Williamston), the Shelby Raye Band and T. G. Sheppard at 6 p.m.
Gospel Stage Entertainment will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday and includes: Stone River, Craig Ledford, Living Truth, Keith Kanipe, Three Seeds, Catlin Tierce, Chosen Few, Image, Gary Hart and Hartstrings, Jack Roper Magic Show, Moriah Akin, and Eternal Vision.
The Spring Water Festival will be celebrating their 35th year and features free kids activities, amusement rides, more than 100 business and craft vendors, antique and classic auto show, 5K run, trail walk and live music.
More than 50 crafters vendors from three states will join local vendors to display and sell handmade items.
After taking a year off, the 5K Spring Water Run will return as a featured attraction of the festival. The run is sanctioned as an RRCA Grand Prix event. The 5K open race will begin at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday. The run is sponsored by AnMed Health and others.
New this year will be a Mineral Spring Trail Walk beginning at 10 a.m. Registration will be held at the Envision Williamston display tent (near the mineral spring) and begins at 9:30 a.m.
Mineral Spring Park has seen several improvements including a new multi-use walking/biking trail known as Mineral Spring Trail. This year the Spring Water Festival will host a Mineral Spring Trail Walk sponsored by AnMed Health, Envision Williamston and The Journal.
The walk is free and the first 100 children and adults to sign up the day of the festival will receive a free Trail Walk T-Shirt.
The festival will also feature a new “Spring Life” T-shirt and a Mineral Spring Park – “One Of The Oldest Public Parks in the Country” T-shirt. Both T-shirts will be available at the festival for $10 each.
The festival will again feature one of the upstate’s largest antique and classic auto shows.
The auto show is sponsored by the Williamston Fire Department, McDonalds and Tri-City Napa Auto Parts. There will be five $100 cash drawings for entrants along with awards in a number of categories.
To register contact Steve Ellison at 864-844-7107 or email wfd100@att.net. Also online at www.williamstonfire.com.
The Fire Department will also offer rides on the restored 1936 firetruck, a festival favorite.
Twelve specially selected food vendors will offer a variety of delicious festival food items and specialties.
More information at www.springwaterfestival.com
