Beaufort’s ‘Frogmore stew’ feed draws 1000s who feast on 1,200 pounds of shrimp. ‘Yum yum’

The promenade at Beaufort’s Waterfront Park may be closed at this year’s Water Festival. But droves of Sea Island residents still turned out Thursday for the beloved Lowcountry supper, where fresh shrimp and a dose of Lowcountry culture and hospitality is served with equal measure.

The mass feeding of the iconic dish called “Frogmore stew,” a mix of succulent boiled shrimp with sides of sausage and corn-on-the-cob, is a highlight of 10-day festival - and it never disappoints - drawing big crowds including Thursday’s tally of 2,000.

Homegrown Lowcountry residents joined tourists in a long line, breathing in the sweet flavor wafting over the waterfront and licking their chops.

“Oh wow. Yum Yum. Thank you,” said Jeanette Brady of Beaufort as server Paul Sommerville dumped a heaping cupful of pink shrimp onto her plate.

The name comes from the community of Frogmore on St. Helena Island just east of Beaufort, although some people know the coastal cuisine as Beaufort stew or Lowcountry boil.

“Lowcountry boil was later in the game,” insists Sommerville, an old-timer who has been volunteering at the festival for years (he was selling beer Saturday, serving shrimp Thursday). “It was always Frogmore stew.”

Brady loves shrimp but it was her first time attending the Lowcountry supper featuring Frogmore stew. The supper, she says, exposes people to Lowcountry culture not just local seafood. “It gives you a real flavor for it,” she said.

Brady moved down the line where other servers weighted down her plate with sausage, corn, buttered buns and watermelon. Ice-cold lemonade or iced tea washed it down.

The shrimp were caught in local waters in Port Royal Sound off the shores of Hunting Island.

“Can’t get any fresher, that’s for sure,” said Cuda DeLouch, an electrician who volunteers with the supper every year.

Every three minutes, a cooking crew set up in the parking lot, led by shrimper Craig Reaves, were boiling 150 pounds of shrimp in 12 giant steel pots that were screaming and spewing steam on a warm and humid Lowcountry summer night, leaving the volunteers drenched.

“I’m about to pass out,” a half-joking Reaves said as he hollered for a towel.

Not all shrimp are created equal

The supper featuring locally caught shrimp comes just weeks after a lawsuit brought by the South Carolina Shrimpers Association in U.S. District Court in Charleston that accused 40 Charleston-area restaurants of breaking state and federal laws for advertising South Carolina seafood but serving foreign shrimp.

“It’s a good time to showcase our local shrimp with everything that’s going on,” said Garrett Priester, a local representative of Ben E. Keith, a food distributor assisting with the Lowcountry supper.

The only aggravation during the community supper was the long line, which stretched some 500 feet from the pavilion, where food was being served, clear back to YoYo’s Ice Cream.

“That was a long line,” festival Commodore Todd Stowe said.

The closure of the popular promenade just before the festival contributed to this year’s longer line, Stowe said. The line usually forms on the promenade near the sea wall, but this year it needed to be moved to a sidewalk on the interior of the park because of the closure.

Just before the 69th Water Festival began, the city closed public access to the 35-foot-wide promenade after receiving a report that the walking path’s supporting structures — concrete pilings underneath the promenade — are failing and can no longer safely carry pedestrian loads without risks of additional failure. But the rest of the park was deemed safe and the 69th Water Festival was allowed to proceed with some changes.

Despite the promenade closure, Stowe said attendance has been strong except for last Saturday’s opening music show. Stowe said he’s not sure if people were worried about the rain or the promenade in that case.

“It’s going well,” he said of the festival as a whole.

Attendance at the Lowcountry Supper, and the follow-up music performance by Journey tribune band Campfire Tyler, was about 2,000, which is a little higher than usual. People still were in line at 7:30 p.m. Gates opened at 6 p.m.

“It’s just a time-honored tradition,” Greg Godfrey, a spokesman for the Water Festival, said of the Low Country Supper.

Godfrey wore a T-shirt that listed the amounts of food that would be served that evening:

▪ 1,200 pounds of shrimp

▪ 3,000 ears of corn

▪ 1,100 pounds of sausage

▪ 700 pounds of potatoes

▪ 400 pounds of cole slaw

▪ 300 gallons of iced tea and lemonade

▪ 3,000 roles

▪ 50 watermelons

“Ooh!” said one person as they walked along Bay Street toward the Lowcountry Supper. “It smells good.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 12:38 PM.

Karl Puckett

The Island Packet

843-256-3420

Karl Puckett covers the city of Beaufort, town of Port Royal and other communities north of the Broad River for The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet. The Minnesota native also has worked at newspapers in his home state, Alaska, Wisconsin and Montana.