FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - Folly Beach hosted its longest-running annual festival over the weekend.

The 33rd Annual Sea and Sand Festival brought hundreds of community members and tourists to the island, ending the weekend with a sand-building contest.

Kathy Hickie, a frequent visitor of Folly and the Sea and Sand Festival, said she loves seeing the contestants with their plans.

“The fact that some people come and, obviously, they come with an idea in mind of what they’re going to make,” she said.

Hickie said she and her husband have been coming to the festival for the last four years or so all the way from Tennessee. She said even though they’ve been several times, this is their first year staying for the sand sculpture portion.

Hickie said she loves seeing the process of each person’s idea. As for the team who won, Jeep Sealife ended up winning best overall.

“There was a fella there with his phone, and he kept checking it as he was working on his castle, so he had an idea. And this mermaid here right next to us, they’ve thought about it—how to use the dry sand, how to use the wet sand. And, you just don’t see that everywhere,” Hickie said.

However, that’s not always the case with all contestants, including Laney Willis.

“And we’re going to do this, and as you can see we’re using pickleball paddles to help us dig it out, so we’re a little under-prepared compared to everybody else,” Willis said.

As their team lead, Willis said they didn’t necessarily plan for their sand boat to be this size. She also said she originally signed up more so as a joke but was happy by the end of it.

“We kind of thought there was going to be more people sculpting for fun and not kind of experienced like the Jeep people,” Willis continued.

The Jeep Sealife team ended up taking home best overall, but Willis said they’re still glad they participated and look forward to next year’s festival.

Best friends Riley Waites and Liliana Elek were among the hundreds of spectators of the sand sculptures.

“I think it’s just so cool because they’re putting all their hard work into this and it’s just cool to see them making it,” Elek said.

They said seeing everyone’s creativity was their favorite part of the day and hope to do it in years to come with this kind of turnout.

One of the judges, Vanessa Oltmann, said a big reason why it was so crowded today was because she used social media hoping it would bring in some more attention.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

|Updated: Mar. 3, 2025 at 7:25 PM EST

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Folly Beach has narrowed down some potential affordable housing options for those who work in or for the city.

Folly Beach city leaders have been working over the past year to evaluate the issue of affordable housing through community surveys and research, and have come up with some possible recommendations.

Officials say one of the recommendations is to increase and expand housing stipends for Folly Beach workers to help offset housing costs for those living on Folly Beach or James Island.

Folly Beach City Councilmember Katherine Houghton says that historically they have provided these stipends for public safety so they can respond more efficiently, but they are considering expanding this initiative to other workers in the city and increasing the dollar amount.

“Right now, it’s for emergency services. So, right now it’s for public safety and they presently already do have a stipend if they live on Folly or James Island. Right now, they are looking to increase that and expand the spots, as well as look at other city employees, not just public safety,” Houghton says.

The current housing stipend in place for public safety workers is $600 a month if they live on Folly Beach and $300 a month if they live on James Island.

Another recommendation the city is considering is the “Lease to Locals” program. Houghton says this initiative would offer incentives to homeowners who currently do short-term rentals and provide them with a financial offset amount to encourage them to do long-term rentals to locals.

“If you do the math, someone who has short-term rentals during a peak season makes a certain amount of money, so therefore what we realize is we’d have to give a financial incentive to be able to subsidize the loss in short-term rentals and offset it with a long term renter that is affiliated or with the city or working locally,” Houghton says.

Another potential recommendation that will be discussed at the next planning commission meeting is accessory dwelling units. These are small living spaces that are located on the same lot as main residences.

“The issue with attainable housing all around not just Folly, Charleston, things of that nature, you will have employees that need to work in those cities and then it’s a question of what the city does to respond to get them either living more local, which is why the strength of the public safety we’ve been doing that for years,” Houghton says. “And recently what’s happened is the question has been posed by business owners and folks that work on Folly, could you do more? Could you push out that program beyond public safety?”

The discussion of affordable housing is great news for Folly Beach worker Sydney Macek. She says that she has been eyeing affordable housing options on the island, but when one does become available she says there is a line of people wanting it as well.

“So a lot of people who work down here live 45 minutes to an hour and a half away and commute down here every day for work and I think that contributes to the restaurants and bars down here being understaffed sometimes. It would really help the local businesses down here if their workers had affordable housing and were able to live down here,” Macek says.

Houghton says that these recommendations are being brought up as the city approaches budget season and whatever options are chosen will have to be evaluated for inclusion in their budget.

The housing stipends and “Lease to Locals” program will be brought to the city council in April. The accessory dwelling units were supposed to be discussed at the planning commission meeting on March 3 but got postponed to the next meeting in April.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.