festival

Get In The Holiday Spirit With These Top Light Displays In Charleston

Featured Image Credit: Holiday Festival of Lights

Break out the holiday sweaters, hot chocolate, and candy canes because the best time of the year is finally upon us!

Charleston has some of the most festive light shows and displays in the area and you certainly won’t want to miss any of them. Bundle up the kids, cozy up with your significant other or bring a friend, and watch these lights illuminate the world! If you’re feeling festive, consider taking a walk, ride or drive through these incredible displays!

#1 Holiday Festival of Lights at James Island County Park 11/10/2017 – 01/01/2018
Perhaps one of the best displays in the area to date, James Island County Park presents their award-winning, three-mile stretch of nearly two million glistening lights! In this 28th annual festival, visitors can walk, drive or hop on a train to embrace the holiday spirit to the fullest. The Park does not stop at holiday lights, they also offer marshmallow roasting, old-fashioned carousel rides, a portable climbing wall, Santa’s Sweet Shoppe and even a chance to meet and take pictures with Santa himself!

#2 James Island Riverland Terrace
James Island continues to exude holiday spirit, check out the Riverland Terrace for a holiday display that will not disappoint!

#3 Mount Pleasant Christmas Light Parade & Tree Lighting
This parade and tree lighting are sure to get you into the holiday spirit with its procession of 100 bright and festive floats that make their way down Coleman Boulevard.

#4 Mount Pleasant Towne Center
Get your holiday shopping done under the blanket of thousands of lights that line the Towne Center. As if holiday shopping wasn’t already exciting enough, the lights help shoppers get into the giving spirit!

#5 Park Circle:
Located in North Charleston, you will not be disappointed with the lighting of their Christmas tree or holiday parade! This place just radiates holiday spirit. The Park Circle Christmas Festival includes a holiday market with children’s activities, food vendors, and even live musical performances!

#6 Bayview Farms Subdivision:
The Bayview Farms subdivisions are even more beautiful during the holiday season. Home to some of the most festive and decorative people in the area; take a ride through on a cold December night and marvel at the holiday spirit.

Featured

10 Things To Do In Charleston This Fall

Featured Image Credit: Charleston CVB

Today is the first day of fall and that means we have a list of the top 10 things to do this autumn in Charleston! Here in the Lowcountry, fall isn’t just about bonfires, apple cider, and pumpkin spice lattes. It’s about perfect beach days, festivals, carriage rides, soaking in some history, fright nights, and sunset cruises.

1.Legare Pumpkin Patches

What says fall better than pumpkins? Legare Farms pumpkin patch is one of the oldest working farms in the nation (since 1725!) They pride themselves in keeping their old traditions while bringing some new age to the farm. They not only have an awesome pumpkin patch but a haunted house, a trail of terror, and a haunted hayride. This a perfect place to spend an autumn day or night!

MOJA Arts Festival

2017 marks the 34th annual MOJA festival. This festival celebrates African-American and Caribbean arts. It has been ranked Top 20 for the Southeast Tourism Society for many years. More than half the events are FREE and the others are modestly priced. MOJA is a great way to kick off fall with a variety of visual arts, music, dance, crafts, children activities and much more!

Fright Nights @ Boone Hall

If you love all things scary, spooky, and creepy – Boone Hall is the place to be. With 4 different attractions (Cemetery of Lost Souls, The Crypt, Wicked Woods Haunted Hayride, and The Gateway) you will be guaranteed to be put in the Halloween spirit!

Museum Mile

Take a stroll on a nice fall day down Charleston’s Museum Mile. Throughout the mile, there are six museums, five historic houses, and four scenic parks. The excursion focuses on the history of Charleston and allows you to take as much time as you would like at each stop.

Ghost Tours

With a long history, comes a long line of ghosts in Charleston. Bulldog Tours offers the largest selection of ghost tours. Most tours introduce the history of famous buildings and neighborhoods. The tours aren’t meant to terrify people but show them the darker history along with maybe a little bit of fright!

Carriage Horse Rides

Carriage rides are one of the most popular attractions in Charleston and there is nothing better than taking one on a nice fall day. Palmetto Carriage Company is Charleston’s oldest tour company. They offer public and private carriage tours and is an easy way to relax and enjoy the changing of seasons!

Oktoberfest

Taking place on October 1st at the MUSC Health Stadium, Charleston celebrates their very own Oktoberfest. This Oktoberfest offers beer, German band, and food. There will be a viewing party for the Carolina Panthers vs. New England Patriots and the Charleston Battery viewing party at 2 p.m. A Jump Castle Kid Zone will also be there, it’s a great place to kick back, drink and watch some sports.

Old City Jail Tours

The Haunted Charleston Jail tour takes you to all the places where criminals lived and died. The Jail was home to some of the worst criminals, pirates, and Civil War prisoners. The Jail was open from 1802-1939. It is a very scary place and people have seen and heard ghosts inside.

Sunset Cruise

Sunset Cruises are always great in Charleston. Fall is perfect because it isn’t too hot. Some charters such as Ahoy Charleston, have offers that pair with ghost tours and sunset cruises if you’re in the mood for a little bit of relaxation after your eerie adventure!

Second Sunday

Enjoy your Sunday Funday on King Street as half of it opens up for people to enjoy food, music, and shopping. It takes place on the Second Sunday of each month from 1-5p.m. Grabbing a PSL, browsing each storefront with music playing and eating some great food isn’t the worst way to spend a Charleston Fall day!

News

Charleston Pride Week Returns At The End Of September!

Featured Image Credit: Charleston Pride Facebook

From September 16-23, Pride Week is taking over Charleston! What to expect? A comedy show, festival, a parade, and lots people dressed in drag. This upbeat celebration has a total of 13 events. The festival will primarily take place in Brittlebank Park featuring performers such as Big Freedia and David Hernandez.

“Our service is basically just putting on the festival and making the festival a place where people can come and feel free and open to be who they are,” says Charleston Pride secretary Devon Turner.

This colorful and loving festival encourages people to feel comfortable in a positive environment. The event has first took place in 2009 and has since come a very long way. Pride brings awareness for the LGBTQ+ community and allows individuals to stand up against the issues they currently face.

Ian Aber will be performing at Charleston Music Hall for an event titled LGBTLOL. He is a native to South Carolina and grew up in Myrtle Beach. He has been a stand-up comedian for six years in Atlanta. Along with Aber, Sampson McCormick will also be performing. McCormick has performed at several pride events and is excited to bring people together to get some laugh in.

For a full list of events and to register for the parade, please visit CharlestonPride.org.

News

Get Excited, Book Worms! A New Book Festival Is Coming To Charleston

Featured Image Credit: Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman

Hey, book worms! We have some exciting news for you: an England-inspired book festival is making its way to Charleston. The new festival is a partnership between the Charleston Library Society in historic Charleston, South Carolina, and the celebrated Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex, England.

So here are the details! The Charleston-to-Charleston Literary Festival will be co-sponsored by the Charleston Library Society and The Charleston Trust U.K. The weekend will be packed with various programs and events at multiple locations downtown.

“The Charleston Festival is the No. 1 literary festival in Europe, so we are thrilled to partner with the Charleston Trust to create a new cultural attraction in the U.S. Our goal is to strengthen the festival each year to continue to unite internationally acclaimed authors with readers for years to come” said Anne Cleveland, executive director of the Charleston Library Society.

Guest speakers include:

Sir Kim Darroch – British ambassador to the United States

Marjorie Spruill – Southern historian Nigerian poet and novelist

Ben Okri – Nigerian poet and novelist British novelist

Bernard Cornwell – British novelist

Dominic Dromgoole. – Former director of London’s Globe Theater

Friday (November 3rd) events:

Cornwell, Dromgoole, and Nan Morrison, all eminent Shakespearean scholars, discuss Shakespeare’s impact on the past, present, and future of Charleston’s Circular Congregational Church.

Saturday (November 4th) events:

Spruill joins Belinda Gergel and Margaret Bradham Thornton for Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women’s Rights, a panel discussing the past and present battle over, yep, women’s rights. Also on Sat. Nov. 4, poet Okri joins Charleston’s artist, activist, and academic Jonathan Green for Meditations on Greatness, a discussion of the qualities we need to survive and transcend the age in which we live.

Many more events will be taking place along with these ones. The festival also includes a screening of William Nicholson’s Breathe.

Stay up to date with the fest’s full schedule at charlestontocharleston.com. And if you’re interested in early bird tickets, call (843) 723-9912.