“Hey everyone, it’s with a bittersweet heart that we want to let you all know that the time has come for us to move on from the festival baby we helped bring into the world 7 years ago @highwaterfest …We will no longer be serving as partners and curators going forward but we do so with endless gratitude and love for all the time we spent out on the waterfront with you. It has been a true honor to play a part in bringing some of our favorite bands and people together in our beautiful home town. This isn’t the forum to get into the gory details of music festival economics, but trust us when we say that it’s tough out there, and the moves that almost all festivals have made in recent years to make those economics work have also pulled the event in a direction that is out of reach of what our vision for High Water was and hoped it could remain. To be clear, this a loving break-up. The individuals who have been working on High Water from the very beginning are some of the best people in the music business and have worked tirelessly each year to bring this event to life. We want to publicly thank them for all their hard work, and to our friends and family who did SO much behind the scenes, you know who you are and we love you for it. High Water will live on, and we hope people continue to have fun and hear great music by the water each year. Thank you for all the joy and beautiful moments!”
My Thoughts on this
Well, we’re probably screwed now. To me, this announcement means that Live Nation is going to double down on the corporate greed for next year’s event, and we will very likely end up with even more BS. I would love to be proven wrong but I strongly doubt that High Water will take any steps towards enriching Charleston’s community now that Shovels & Rope are no longer involved.
The divide between the cool independent entities and the evil corporate overlords in the music industry continues to grow. This trend is likely to continue until either all the independent people give up (not happening in my lifetime) or Live Nation goes under (or bends the knee).
