Shannon Tanner leads the boys against the girls in a singing competition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on the Shelter Cove main stage while the crowd looks on and applauds with laughter.
It’s an all-too-common lament, one you’ve probably shared at some point. You first came to Hilton Head Island and the magic all around you was almost overwhelming. Odds are, you arrived as a tourist. You and your family spent a day at the beach that still resides in the warmest parts of your memory. You rode your bikes on pathways that wound through enchanting maritime forests. You spent the evening gazing up at the blossoms of fiery color bursting through the night sky over Shelter Cove Harbour and Marina, and you told yourself you wanted to feel this way forever.
And then you moved here, and slowly you stopped doing those things. Beach days became a once-a-summer thing at best. Your bike began rusting away in the garage. And you might see the fireworks off in the distance over Shelter Cove, but you put HarbourFest on the list of things you’ll get around to doing at some point before summer is over.
The Smith Family from Huntsville, Alabama poses for a quick photo near King Neptune.
You still love living here, but you’ve stopped living here like you did when you first fell in love with it. It’s time you rekindled that romance. And the best way to do that is to head back to Shelter Cove Harbour and Marina on a Tuesday night.
The annual Tuesday night celebration recently returned, bringing with it all the excitement and activity that has made it an island institution. Riding the immense wave of interest that has built up all across the island over the last few years, HarbourFest was absolutely packed on a recent visit.
“This is actually a pretty light crowd,” corrected organizer Karen Kozemchak as the crowds swirled around her. “We’ll get around 7,000 people in here some weeks, and you’ll just see this sea of people all along the promenade from one end to another.”
Locals Andrew and Morgan Ambler bring their family and extended crew to the first night of HarbourFest for baby Asher’s first Shannon Tanner sing-along experience.
Thankfully, that promenade is well suited for the task. There may be a crowd, but there’s never a sense of being crowded. Organizers have made sure to space out the attractions, creating smaller pockets of people that are never stepping on each other. To one end of the promenade, the kids area gives the smallest visitors their place to run amok, leaving only aboard the brightly colored train that traverses the marina. Even at the center of it all, despite the twin attractions of Shannon Tanner and Cappy the Clown, you never feel like you’re being mobbed.
During said recent visit, one family was even able to get a family portrait done, right in the heart of HarbourFest’s busiest area. The point being, if you’ve been staying away because it’s too crowded, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Because there is magic in HarbourFest, and in its ability to remind us why we moved here.
“I’ve been doing this for 33 years, and it never gets old,” Shannon Tanner told the crowd.
Fireworks light up the night at Shelter Cove Harbour & Marina on the first night of HarbourFest 2022. Photo taken from 405 Mainsail, which is available as a short-term vacation rental through palmettodunes.com.
As he broke into a Kenny Chesney song, it wasn’t hard to see why. The golden hour’s sun bathing the harbour in gentle light, the crowds building their own “best vacation ever” memories, the laughter of children as they swung around balloon swords crafted by Cappy the Clown… it’s something we all need to make sure we revisit and hold onto.
As you live here long enough, it becomes very easy to stop viewing Hilton Head Island with the same eyes you did when you first came here. So, it’s essential that periodically you play tourist. When that first firework lights up the sky over Shelter Cove Harbour and Marina and you feel the excitement surge through the crowd, you’ll start to remember.
And then, just as the sparks burst through the sky, the realization will burst through your heart. There is magic on Hilton Head Island. Perhaps nowhere greater than across that stretch of water at Shelter Cove Harbour and Marina, especially when you’re sharing that magic with people who are experiencing it for the first time. That moment, that feeling, will make you fall in love all over again.
HarbourFest returns every Tuesday during the summer, starting at 6 p.m., with fireworks starting when the sky is dark. For more information visit sheltercoveharbourfest.com or sheltercovehiltonhead.com.
The Prodigal Son
Shelter Cove Harbour and Marina brings back a familiar face to serve as harbourmaster.
Mason Lemon grew up on the waters of Hilton Head Island. A native son of the island, his childhood was spent with a boat deck below his feet and a fishing pole in his hand. When he was old enough, he went to work on the water at Shelter Cove Harbour and Marina as a dockhand. For five glorious summers, before heading off to Clemson to study travel and tourism management, the harbour was his home as he worked his way up to assistant dock master.
He may have bid a farewell to Hilton Head after college, but even as he did, he knew he’d be back. “There’s no place like home,” Lemon said. “I always felt like I’d come back to the island, I just didn’t know when.”
He got his answer when he got a call from Shelter Cove asking him to come back and serve as their new harbourmaster. It’s a rare thing for a Hilton Head Island kid to leave and come back, but then it’s also a rare thing for a 27-year-old to serve as harbourmaster.
“It’s a fun job, so people tend to want to stay in it; that’s why it’s usually older guys,” Lemon said. “I mean, you get to wear shorts every day and hang out around boaters. And everyone’s usually pretty happy when they’re at the marina.”
He makes a solid point. And despite his young age, Shelter Cove isn’t even his first posting. During his three-and-a-half years spent off the island, he worked in marinas from Virginia to Texas, including Virginia’s Tidewater Yacht Marina, whose 300 slips kept him busy.
Shelter Cove may have a comparably small 178 slips, but Lemon still stays busy overseeing dock hands, commercial charters and the retail shop. And he has a lot of fun doing it.
“It’s like playing Tetris sometimes. We have a few different yachts coming in today that are 70-foot-plus, so that involves moving stuff around—this person is here for six months, this one for three days, where do we put them? It’s a great job,” he said. “I love it.”
Shannon Tanner and Cappy the Clown will also entertain fun-loving crowds with music and family fun. Shannon Tanner includes two family shows at 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. all week long on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, through Sept. 2. On Thursdays from June 16 through August 18 (plus Sept. 3-4), Tanner shifts into Caribbean sunset celebration mode for Parrot Palooza, a fun, family friendly, island-inspired show with his Jimmy Buffett tribute band, Shannon Tanner & The Oyster Reefers.
In addition, fellow Lowcountry legend Cappy the Clown returns for another year of entertaining children with face painting, balloon animals, sand art, glitter tattoos and more. Cappy is set up at the Harbour from 6-9 p.m. Monday through Friday through Sept. 2 — as well as Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3-4.
Shannon Tanner family show: May 30 – Sept 2 (Mon, Tues, Wed & Fri) – two shows at 6:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
Parrot Palooza with Shannon Tanner & the Oyster Reefers: Thursdays, June 16 – August 18 – (June 16, 23 & 30; July 7, 14, 21 & 28; August 4, 11 & 18) plus Labor Day weekend (Saturday, September 3 & Sunday, September 4) – Show starts at 7:00 p.m.
Cappy the Clown: May 30 – Sept. 2 (Monday-Friday) and Labor Day weekend (Saturday, Sept. 3 & Sunday, Sept. 4) – 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
