Beaufort Water Festival finds its soul

Mikel Swinton is now officially a free bird.

For more than 30 years, he was a special volunteer at the Beaufort Water Festival, contributing mightily despite being a client of the Beaufort County Disabilities and Special Needs Department.

He died unexpectedly this spring after a short bout with cancer, and his spirit is very much a part of this year’s festival that runs through Sunday.

A moment of silence was held in his honor during the opening ceremony of the 61st festival. Afterward, all the past commodores present stood and applauded.

A tribute is on the sleeve of every volunteer’s work T-shirt: The name “Mikel” with wings and a halo.

“He was very special to me,” said festival administrative coordinator Todd Stowe as he prepared to cook Frogmore stew for 2,000 of his best friends on Thursday night.

“He was special to a lot of people.”

Stowe has trouble talking about Swinton without stopping to settle down the lump in his throat.

He said he didn’t realize how important the festival was to Swinton until he passed away.

Without telling anyone, Stowe ordered a personal tribute to Swinton. It is a straw hat with black band, vented crown and green visor in the brim. It’s the kind of hat Swinton wore to keep the oppressive July sun at bay as he kept things clean in the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park.

Pinned to the hat is the name tag Swinton was to wear this year.

Stowe simply placed the hat on the reception desk in the headquarters trailer. It’s by the chair where Swinton always sat. On Thursday, it sat on the desk as Pirettes Quinn Fleming and Mary Alden Cooper took turns answering the phone and greeting guests.

For next year, Stowe hopes to have it mounted. This year, its main role was probably to make people cry.

But then Stowe and fellow volunteer Rand Thacker had a better idea.

The hat went on the main stage.

It was there for the Motown Monday concert by the popular Hilton Head Island band Deas Guyz.

Motown Monday was Swinton’s favorite event of the 10-day festival.

Every year he went up on stage and danced with the band — always during the second song of the second set.

When that moment rolled around on Monday, the band played “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder followed by “Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. And a video tribute to Swinton played on the big screen.

Then Water Festival volunteers placed the straw hat on an empty microphone stand.

It’s a tribute Stowe got from the rockin’ Southern band of the 1970s, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

When the band that brought us “Sweet Home Alabama” was at its peak, three of its members and the stage manager were killed in a plane crash in a Mississippi swamp.

When a reunion band was put together a decade later, they placed the hat of their late leader, Ronnie VanZant, on an empty microphone stand. It was lit by a lone spotlight.

That’s the only way they could get through the song that everybody demanded to hear. That’s how they were able to play “Freebird.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 6:58 PM with the headline "Beaufort Water Festival finds its soul."