Join in the festivities for CAMDEN’S BICENTENNIAL LAFAYETTE WEEKEND (March 7-9, 2025), with planned events beginning the week leading up to the reenactment of the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1825 visit to Camden. For details about local events taking place and for more information about the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1825 visit to America, please visit https://lafayette200.org.
So far, the following events have been planned for Camden:
March 2025: Lafayette Exhibit: Artifacts from Lafayette’s 1825 visit to South Carolina at the Camden Archives & Museum, 1314 Broad St, Camden. Free to the public.
March 2025: Silent art auction with a french flair, in honor of Lafayette’s visit, raising money for youth art scholorships. The auction is on-line for the month of March. Art is exhibited at Camden Art Shoppes Elevator Lobby Gallery, at 1011 Broad Street. See art and learn more here.
Monday, March 3 – Saturday, March 8th, 3pm: “Where’s Lafayette? A Historical Scavenger Hunt for Families” – Pick up the passport & instructions from the Kershaw County Library, 1304 Broad St. starting Saturday, March 1st. Sponsored by the Hobkirk Hill Chapter, NSDAR.
Tuesday, March 4th 12pm-1:30pm: “Lunch & Learn: Lafayette and the Rights of Man” – Bill Davies will help take us through this remarkable man’s life and his time spent in South Carolina. Bring your lunch! Revolutionary War Visitor Center, 212 Broad St, Camden. Reservations recommended. Free to the public.
Friday, March 7th & Saturday, March 8th: “Revolutionary Art Sale” at Artists Attic, 930 Broad Street. Meet local artists, see the work they do, and find that special something to take back home.
Thursday, March 6th 6:30pm: Regency Dance Lessons McCaa’s Tavern, Historic Camden Foundation, 222 Broad Street. Free to the public.
Friday, March 7th 10am-4pm: “Run to the Waxhaws” Battle Site Tour with Box Lunch. Departs from Historic Camden Foundation, 222 Broad Street. $75 pp. *ADVANCE TICKETS REQUIRED*
Friday, March 7th 5:00pm: McCaa’s Tavern Yard Supper featuring Half-Crown Bakehouse’s Provisions Plate. Live music and cannon firing at dusk. McCaa’s Tavern, Historic Camden Foundation, 222 Broad Street. $15 per plate. Cash Bar. Admission free to the public.
Saturday, March 8th, 10am: Lafayette Arrival Ceremony Lafayette arrives in an open carriage. Speeches from 1825 recreated. Mayor Vincent Sheheen will read the Lafayette Day Proclamation. Kershaw-Cornwallis House, Historic Camden Foundation, 222 Broad Street. Free to the public.
Saturday, March 8th, 10:30am: Parade through Downtown Camden, Broad Street to DeKalb Street to end at Bethesda Presbyterian Church, 502 East DeKalb Street. Everyone is welcome to join in! Estimated Distance = 1 mile. Free to the public. Saturday, March 8th, 11:00am: Laying of the Cornerstone for General DeKalb’s Monument. Lafayette and the Freemasons will reenact the ceremony from 1825 at Bethesda Presbyterian Church, 502 East DeKalb. Free to the public.
Saturday, March 8th, 12pm-2pm: French Wine Brunch at Broad & Vine, 1025 Broad Street. Join Neelie Edwards of ALEPH Wines as you sample 6 amazing French wines and enjoy a 5 course brunch. $50 per person, reservations required. Call 803-714-7898.
Saturday, March 8th, 12pm-4pm: Living History Open House at Historic Camden Foundation, 222 Broad Street. Living history demonstrations. Lunch will be available for purchase from Half-Crown Bakehouse. Historic Camden. $10 pp.
Saturday, March 8th, 1pm-3pm: Book Talk and Q&A Children’s Authors Jenny Cote and Libby McNamee and Lafayette, himself! Liberty Hall. Revolutionary War Visitor Center, 212 Broad Street. Free to the public.
Saturday, March 8th, 5pm-7pm: 1825 Dinner at McCaa’s Tavern cooked by Chefs Justin Cherry & Hugh China. Includes wine, port, and nonalcoholic drinks. McCaa’s Tavern, Historic Camden Foundation, 222 Broad Street. $100 pp. *ADVANCE TICKETS REQUIRED*
Saturday, March 8th, 7pm-9pm: 1825 Soirée at the Robert Mills Courthouse, 607 Broad Street. Live music, English Country Dancing with Mr. Steplively as the dance caller, cash bar, and refreshments served. Robert Mills Courthouse. $50 pp. *ADVANCE TICKETS REQUIRED*
Sunday, March 9th, 9:30am: Regency-style Breakfast at McCaa’s Tavern cooked by Chef Justin Cherry. During breakfast, we’ll give a talk on the Camden Burials Project. McCaa’s Tavern, Historic Camden Foundation, 222 Broad Street. Tickets are $20 pp. *ADVANCE TICKETS REQUIRED*
The City of Camden Accommodations Tax Grant Committee is now accepting applications for fiscal year 2025-26.
Accommodations tax grants are available to nonprofit organizations in and near Camden, in order to support their advertising and promotion of events, assets or other tourism related projects. The purpose of accommodations tax grants is fund marketing efforts that attract populations outside of a 50-mile radius to visit Camden.
Accommodations Tax funding is a reimbursement program, and eligible events, projects and activities must take place between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026. Formal applications must be submitted before any requests will be considered. Events must attract regional, state, or national audiences.
Accommodations tax grant applications and the accommodations tax grant handbook are available for download here.
Applications must be received at Camden City Hall, 1000 Lyttleton Street, by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 25, 2025.
Celebrating its ninth anniversary and moving to a new location for its grand final day celebration, Irish Fest Camden, the premiere Irish festival of the southeast, will be celebrated on Saturday, March 1, 2025 at the Kershaw County Airport in Camden.
Throughout the week of the festival, Camden businesses are invited to help join in the festivities by decorating their storefronts in an Irish theme. A committee will visit the locations with the winner receiving a unique award.
Here is a listing of the event’s festivities:
Irish Trivia returns to Broad & Vine wine bar on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $25 and includes a glass of bubbly and an appetizer. Prizes every round! Visit www.broad-and-vine.com for more info.
For the second time in as many years, the Black Box Theater, located inside the Wood Auditorium on the grounds of the Arts Center of Kershaw County will host an Irish Pub Night on Thursday, Feb. 27 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The evening will feature a traditional Irish dinner, drinks, live music and stories about traditional Irish music and the instruments used to create it. More information may be found on www.artscenterkc.org
Returning to the festivities for the seventh year is the Friday night Downtown Camden Pub Crawl on Friday, Feb. 28. The evening is a night of live Irish music at various venues in Camden from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
One of the most popular events of the festival is the eighth annual Lucky Leprechaun 5K race/walk to be run at 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 1 at the Town Green in Camden. Registration is currently taking place online at: www.strictlyrunning.com/LL5k
The week of festivities leads up to the grand celebration at the Kershaw County Airport at 2203 Airline Drive, Camden, SC. The celebration is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Advance tickets are now on sale online with an early bird price of $15 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets will be $20 and $7, respectively, cash-only at the gate. Tickets are available now at the Irish Fest Camden website.
The day-long, family friendly event features food and beverage vendors throughout the expansive grounds including an authentic Irish pub featuring Shepherd’s Pie. The Highland Games, a staple of the festival since its start, brings together athletes from throughout the Southeast to compete in such events as the open stone throw, the Braemer Stone throw, the Sheaf, and the light and heavy hammer toss, which have piqued the interest of festival-goers, many of whom are getting their first look at these unique athletic events.
Stations featuring soda, water, Irish and green beer, coffee and Irish coffee, along with a whiskey-tasting tent will be part of the festivities as will a kids’ zone. An Irish historian will return to share stories of folklore and history. There will be more than 40 food vendors offering a multitude of options and more than 100 retail vendors.
One of the main attractions of the day is live music and this year the headliners are the Screaming Orphans, a four-sister group from County Donegal, Ireland, who are making their second appearance at Irish Fest Camden, and Columbia’s own and festival favorite, Syr who returns to the festival for the ninth year. In addition, there will be other musical acts spread out among three stages during the course of the day.
Excitement! Excitement is what I feel in taking the reins as Camden’s new mayor. What a great honor to lead the city I love so dearly. First, thank you to all my friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens for trusting me in this new role. Second, I pledge to each of you that I will do my utmost to be the best mayor in America and to help make Camden the best City it can be.
We all should know how lucky we are to live in this great City, where neighbors still know neighbors, people still treat others with respect, and families can grow surrounded by love and support. My goals as Mayor are to continue the good traditions we have and make changes to improve our City even more. We can do this!
Camden has been blessed with strong leadership, including our outgoing mayor and council. We owe them our thanks for their willingness to take on tough matters simply because of their love for our City. We also owe our thanks to our City employees for their dedication and hard work.
Here are a few of my top priorities to get working on right away: recruit new grocery stores to our City; explore innovative ways and modernization efforts to stabilize customers’ utility bills; engage with our citizens to guide development within Camden and preserve our heritage; make Camden a top destination for weekend visitors and tourists, help small businesses grow and prosper; the homelessness issues that have arisen in our downtown. Of foremost importance is improving the communication between our City government and our citizens.
There are other issues to take on, too many to list, but they include improving employee morale, cleaning up our City, modernizing facilities, removing large truck traffic downtown, and making our streets more walkable. I am committed to tackling these issues facing us with the support of our community.
Here are a few concrete steps I plan to implement immediately: regularly issue a newsletter to Camden’s citizens, updating them on what’s happening in the City; create a Mayor’s Cabinet of select nonprofits in the community to coordinate and provide critical services; the appointment of task forces made up of citizens and Council members to make recommendations on specific areas that need improvement in the operation of our City.
Growth is coming to Camden and we don’t have to be beggars anymore; we can be choosers. Together we should determine what Camden’s future will be and what environment our children and grandchildren experience. We hold a sacred trust to the generations that follow us to make Camden a better place than we found it.
Finally, I have decided to donate my Mayor’s salary back to the City of Camden, for the specific purpose of rewarding employees who go above and beyond the call of duty in their work. This decision is not to say that the Mayor and City Council members do not deserve a salary – in fact they deserve more than they receive for all the work they do. However, I am in a unique position after having served in many roles in our state and community and feel like it’s time for me to also give back in this way. My hope is that our City employees take this decision as a manifestation of my commitment to and confidence in them.
The African American Cultural Center of Camden will start Black History Month by hosting a “Let’s Talk About…” symposium on Saturday, February 1st at 1:00 pm in Liberty Hall at the Revolutionary War Visitor Center, 212 Broad Street.
The symposium, “Artists: Gatekeepers of the Human Experience” will feature ethnomusicologist and associate professor Dr. Birgitta Johnson of the University of South Carolina School of Music. Dr. Johnson will explore the field of musicology, its function in society, and what musicologists do in the cultural context, and how that has changed over time.
Light refreshments to be served following the symposium. Registration is not required, but encouraged by calling 803-432-2421 x1153 or emailing kspadacenta@camdensc.org.
The African American Cultural Center will also add additional hours beginning in February, open Fridays from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and Saturdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, at 517 York Street. An exhibit featuring some of Camden’s notable African Americans throughout history is on display, and will be added to throughout Black History Month.
The African American Cultural Center of Camden encourages an understanding of and an appreciation for the history and culture of people of African descent through discussions, exhibits, tours, lectures, and genealogical activities. A basic tenet of the African American Cultural Center is that we all are connected and have shared links through places, people, passions, and stories, making a stronger, more united city, state, region, and nation. The African American Cultural Center preserves documents and artifacts which reveal the stories and legacies of the Camden community of African descent.
