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By 6 p.m., the park was crowded with folding chairs and picnic blankets. Although most heads in the audience were topped with white or salt-and-pepper hair, some parents arrived with children in tow and a few college-aged people dotted the gathering.
Audrey Adams drove from Beaufort to see what the tea party was all about.
"They're raising taxes on military families, and that's huge for us," said the 23-year-old business management student at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, whose husband is deployed in Afghanistan. "Now health care is going to raise the debt, and we'll be even worse off."
One of the tea party's defining battle cries, "Can you hear us now," was echoed in some attendees' loss of faith in their political representatives.
"I'm tired of what's going on. The parties have sold us out. They aren't beholden to the people anymore," said Marc Beaman, 55, who has filed as the Constitution Party challenger for the 2nd Congressional District seat held by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-West Columbia. Beaman handed out campaign fliers at Thursday's event.
State Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, and state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, both chatted with supporters in the audience. Although organizers invited the county's entire state legislative delegation, none were invited to speak.
From the back of a flat bed truck, "citizen speakers" advocated for legislative term limits, disbanding the Internal Revenue Service and repealing health care reform.
A handful of people in the audience were unreceptive to their messages.
"I'm really disturbed by the negativism and think a lot of what is being said is inaccurate," Joan Yates of Sun City said while holding a sign that read, "Your taxes now lower than under Bush."
Yates was far outnumbered by people like Larry and Joyce Gilles, who say they are concerned about being dumped into Medicare instead of getting the retirement insurance benefits provided by their employers.
"If we don't voice our opinion and get involved, we'll be plowed under," Larry Gilles said.
The Bluffton event was one of what one coalition of tea party organizations estimated to be between 1,700 and 2,000 tax-day rallies nationwide. Hosted by the Bluffton Tea Party Patriots, it was the first time the county's three tea party organization, including Beaufort Tea Party and Tea Party of Hilton Head, coordinated an event jointly.
