Clearwater Festival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Clearwater Festival (officially The Great Hudson River Revival) is a music and environmental summer festival and America’s oldest and largest annual festival of its kind. This unique event has hosted over 15,000 people on a weekend in June for more than three decades. All proceeds benefit Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)3 environmental organization.
The Festival, a celebration for the Hudson River, features singer-songwriters, performers and musicians offering fun with a purpose—a diverse mix of contemporary, traditional and American Roots music, dance, and storytelling. In addition to the festival programming content, all behind-the-scenes elements—such as sustainable stage power, recycling of food waste, volunteer meal preparation, and sponsor selection—are done with goals of sustainability and social responsibility in mind.
The driving force behind the festival is Pete Seeger who regularly performs at it. Among those who have performed over the years are Janis Ian, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Tish Hinojosa, Dizzy Gillespie, Paul Winter, Odetta, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Christine Lavin.
The Hudson River's importance to the festival has grown over the years. In addition to the music, activities now include river sports, such as kayaking and rowboating, and rides on the tall ships The Clearwater, The Mystic Whaler, and the Woody Guthrie.
[edit] Mission of the festival
The Great Hudson River Revival is produced by Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., a nonprofit, member-supported, environmental organization, to raise funds and consciousness on the plight of the river and the earth, as well as uniting the community around the river. All proceeds go directly to support Clearwater’s environmental research, education, and advocacy to help preserve and protect the river and its tributaries, as well as communities in the river valley.
The Festival makes possible innovative educational initiatives such as Clearwater’s New Hudson River School, which has helped more than 430,000 young people and over 250,000 adults experience the wonders of the River from aboard the Sloop Clearwater.
