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We're moving! (to March)
The dates selected for the 2012 Festival are March 2-4.
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Well know artist and Georgetown resident Joseph Cave was chosen as the Winyah Bay Festival 2012 Featured Artist.
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Tickets are available by calling the Georgetown County Museum at (843) 545 7020.
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Winyah Bay Heritage Festival
Events, Exhibits, Excitement all in one
East Bay Park, Georgetown SC
March 2, 3 & 4
Welcome to the Winyah Bay Heritage Festival. It’s all about tradition. Now in its fifth year, the festival is a celebration of the rich heritage of Winyah Bay and the surrounding area. Our history predates plantations and the system of slavery, but so many of our traditions are rooted here, in the rice fields, uplands and marshes. Wealthy northerners discovered the area as a hunting paradise after President Grover Cleveland got stuck in pluff mud in North Inlet. To this day, locals and visitors benefit from our abandoned rice fields, ecologically rich estuaries and the many conserved properties that surround Winyah Bay.
This year, the festival will take place at the Bobby Alford Recreation Center located in Georgetown. Visitors to the festival are introduced to the many attributes that make Georgetown a great place to live, work and build bonds among men, women and families. The activities that take place during the three day event are built upon history. Plantations surround us, most of which grew rice or indigo, while some produced naval stores. So many of our traditions derive from the plantation era, and it is the mission of the Heritage Festival to keep these traditions alive as individuals learn about and participate in what makes the area so bountiful.
Hunting and fishing have long been a way to put food on the table. While hunting and fishing still provide food, they have become pastimes of avid sportsmen and a way to develop conservationists of tomorrow. Dogs are a big part of both. Used for retrieving ducks, pointing for quail and providing companionship on fishing trips, dogs are a true part of our heritage. The Palmetto Dock Dogs will be on site this year demonstrating how dogs jump, retrieve and truly are a part of the extended family. Fishing guides will be on hand to talk about some of the best fishing spots, share tactics and teach techniques for the perfect throw with a cast net. Once the art of casting a net is learned, any individual would be welcomed on the bow of a boat. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources brings their fishing simulator and shooting range which are huge hits with children.
Additional activities for the young and young at heart include the Birds of Prey, decoy painting and the youth
duck calling clinic, a new event last year. New this year, and suited for all ages, will be a demonstration
called “Snakes in Your Own Back Yard.” Numerous exhibitors bring many items for sale. If you are looking for
the perfect call, decoy or painting, you’re in luck. Please support the exhibitors as they, too, are an
integral part of the festival.
Well known artist and Georgetown resident Joseph Cave was chosen as the Winyah Bay Heritage Festival 2012 featured artist.
The painting titled “ View of Chicora Wood Plantation” was unveiled in November at a special reception held at the historic
Stewart Parker house in Georgetown.
All proceeds from ticket sales and sponsors benefit the Georgetown County Historical Society, which in turn supports the
Georgetown County Museum, a 501 (c) (3) entity. In addition to festival activities, many museums and tours in the area
are available to further your knowledge of this special place. Your visit will make you want to live here, and you’ll certainly understand why pluff mud sticks to our boots and to our roots
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Coming in 2012, Palmetto Dock Dogs
Many Attended the Festival AND Enjoyed Georgetown SC
Georgetown merchants offered great discounts to festival attendees!
Winyah Bay Entrance and Sampit River Tide Predictions (2012) !
The service of the NOAA Tides & Currents website is not be available after the 2011 calendar year.
Tide predictions for 2012 and future dates are now available from the NOAA Tide Predictions service.
This new service allows tide predictions to be generated for up to 2 years in advance, provides a graphical
display as well as tabular listing of the predicted tides and has options for downloading or printing, and a number of other features.
The Winyah Bay Heritage Festival returns to Georgetown March 2 - 4, 2012.
The Festival is designed to celebrate the rich history of the Winyah Bay area,
with an emphasis on conservation, preservation, art, hunting, fishing, decoy
carving and other unique traditions.
It unites wildlife artists, a variety of unique exhibitors, outdoor lovers of
all sorts and collectors from across the nation.
The festival takes place in various locations throughout Georgetown County,
and proceeds benefit the Georgetown County Historical Society and the
Georgetown County Museum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Winyah Bay's Rich History
Winyah Bay comprises the geographic region now known as Georgetown, South
Carolina. From the first inhabitants, the Indians, hunting and fishing has
always been a way of life. In 1526, Spaniards made the first recorded North
American expedition to Winyah Bay, and the indigenous fauna of waterfowl,
turkey, deer, fish and shellfish provided the basics to survive.
The 525,000-acre Winyah Bay area covers the lower drainage of the Black, Great
Pee Dee, Little Pee Dee, Sampit and Waccamaw rivers and their confluence into
Winyah Bay itself. Together, these waterways form the third largest estuarine
watershed on the East Coast.
Rice has been cultivated here for centuries, and the wetlands are a regionally
significant habitat for waterfowl, colonial water birds and nesting ospreys.
Upland tracts support endangered red-cockaded woodpecker colonies. Many other
threatened or endangered species can be found throughout Winyah Bay, including
bald eagles, short-nosed sturgeon, loggerhead sea turtles, peregrine falcons,
least terns, piping plovers, and wood storks. At any time of year, you will
see schools of dolphin and large alligators swimming the area waters.
In 1732, when the seaport community of Georgetown was established, the Winyah
Bay region had already begun to embrace the rich traditions of its diverse
residents. Native American, European and African cultures mixed to form a rich
blend of art, architecture and accents. In these early years, hunting and
fishing provided much of the food and its importance was well understood.
In the early 1900s, affluent northerners flocked here to hunt and fish with
local sportsmen and landowners. Their quarry varied from ducks, deer, quail
and hogs to the fish found in our rivers, creeks and Winyah Bay itself.
Out of this came a fine Southern Sporting Heritage. Hunting, fishing, sporting
art, dogs, decoys and firearms are part of the landscape. This in turn,
spawned many of the region’s great writers and artists. It is a heritage that
continues to this day.
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