Great Hudson River Revival Launches New Website, Announces Initial Performer Line-up
Clearwater’s 2013 Great Hudson River Revival, also known as the Clearwater Festival, the country’s oldest music and environmental festival and a regional tradition will take place over Father’s Day weekend, June 15 and 16, at Croton Point Park, Croton-On-Hudson, NY. The gates will open to attendees at 9:00 AM both days. Tickets to the Clearwater Festival are now on sale and can be purchased at www.ClearwaterFestival.org, or by calling (845) 236-5596. Ticket prices have been kept low this year, and kids 12 and under get in free.
The Clearwater Festival features a range of world-class musicians appearing on 7 bio-diesel powered stages. According to Clearwater festival Director Steve Lurie, “This year’s line-up features a diverse roster of amazing artists from around the globe. We’ll feature more world music artists and I’m excited to present these remarkable artists to our festival audience for the first time. Being a true family festival, it is also great that we can continue to offer kids 12 and under free admission.”
The initial performer line up for the 2013 Clearwater Festival includes Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Hot Tuna (acoustic), Son Volt, Patterson Hood Band, Antibalas, David Bromberg Quartet, Jorma Kaukonen & Steve Kimmock, Toshi Reagon & Big Lovely, Keller Williams & The Travelin’ McCourys, Jason Isbell, Red Baraat, Vieux Farka Touré, Delhi 2 Dublin, Floodwood (featuring Al Schnier & Vinnie Ammico of moe.), Joanne Shenandoah, The Klezmatics, Dan Zanes, David Broza, Tom Chapin, David Amram, Josh White Jr., Guy Davis Band, Jill Sobule, Giant Robot Dance, Martha Redbone, Jesse Legé & the Bayou Brew, and many more.
Clearwater Festival is also proud to announce its new and improved festival website, www.ClearwaterFestival.org. Visitors to the new website will discover an enriched online experience with a performer photo gallery, improved functionality, and a straightforward user experience with expanded information and resources.
The Clearwater Festival is an annual event that offers attendees an opportunity to gather to enjoy music, celebrate the Hudson River, take part in the organization’s commitment to protect the environment as well as its mission to inspire, educate, and activate the next generation of environmental leaders. The festival also offers unique activities for children of all ages and includes The Family Stage, Children’s Area, storytelling, river beach combing and net seining, juggling and roving artists, face painting and lots of other kid-friendly activities. Once again, the wildly popular Todd Crowley’s Musical Petting Zoo will return to the festival –– from accordion to zither, the Zoo’ is a fully interactive, hands-on exhibition for musicians, young and old, novice to professional.
The festival also offers dance, a Juried Crafts Fair, Green Living Expo, Working Waterfront with rides on small boats and tall ships including the sloop Clearwater, an Artisanal Food & Farm Market, environmental education displays and exhibits, and the Circle of Song where audience participation is the focus, and it all takes place on the banks of the mighty Hudson River at the beautiful Croton Point Park in Westchester County, NY.
The Clearwater Festival is wheelchair accessible and most stage programming is staffed with American Sign Language Interpreters.
Clearwater Festival Attractions:
- At the Working Waterfront, attendees can go out on small boats and tall ships, including the sloop Clearwater and the schooner Mystic Whaler, offering deck tours and 2 hour sails throughout the festival weekend.
- Clearwater’s Discovery & Tideline Education tents provide an up-close and personal look at Hudson River life and feature Clearwater’s original hands-on environmental education programs and Hudson River research. Where else can you “pet a hogchoker”?
- The Environmental Action Tent highlights Clearwater’s watershed and environmental justice initiatives in cities up and down the Hudson.
- Field Music & Performances offer up a wide variety of off-stage performances and interactive musical exhibits, including the Jam Tent; Jugglers, Clowns, & other Roving Artists; and the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus. Performances that make the Clearwater Festival unique include Story Grove, where festival-goers can sit under the cool shade trees and listen to America’s best-loved storytellers. The Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, a contemporary mask and puppet theater company, perform large-scale production by the river’s edge.
- Field Attractions are scattered throughout the festival grounds and include unique vendor/exhibitor areas, including the Activist Area, Food Vendors, the Marketplace, and more.
- The juried Crafts Area showcases over 50 crafters and folk artists with quality hand-made items, demonstrations and workshops.
- The Green Living Expo Tent is the place to learn about products, services, concepts and technologies that can inform your lifestyle and business choices.
- An expanded Artisanal Food & Farm Market, has been big hit at past two Clearwater Festivals, and continues to present some of the Hudson Valley’s most excellent foods and specialty items – all local.
Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival is produced by the nonprofit, member-supported, environmental organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. All proceeds go directly to support Clearwater’s environmental research, education and advocacy efforts to help preserve and protect the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as communities in the Hudson River Valley.
Media Contact: Steve Lurie, Festival Director, 203-428-6720, steve@clearwater.org, www.ClearwaterFestival.org
History of the Great Hudson River Revival, (Clearwater Festival)
Back in the mid-sixties, after centuries of accumulated sewage pollution and industrial dumping of toxic chemicals, the Hudson River, like many of America’s most important estuaries, was declared “dead”. The river’s fragile ecological system was devastated. Not a single fish was found in many areas, and the level of commercial fishing had dropped so dramatically as to be regarded as nonexistent. Recognizing this incredible social and environmental tragedy, Pete Seeger, a popular musician and respected activist, decided “to build a boat to save the river”. Holding small, fundraising river concerts throughout the Hudson River Valley, Seeger literally passed his banjo among the crowd, collecting contributions to build the elegant tall ship that would become a symbol of environmental advocacy, the flagship of the American Environmental Movement, the sloop Clearwater. throughout the Hudson River Valley, Seeger literally passed his banjo among the crowd, collecting contributions to build the elegant tall ship that would become a symbol of environmental advocacy, the flagship of the American Environmental Movement, the sloop Clearwater.
This nomadic folk festival picnic continued to travel throughout the Hudson River Valley. In 1978 the gathering set down roots at a historic river park, Croton Point, on the Hudson River and was named “The Great Hudson River Revival”. However, ten years later, due to pollution problems with the landfill at the park, the festival was forced to move from the river. This move resulted in a decade of exile inland at a suburban college campus. In 1998, however, the Clearwater board of directors pushed to move the festival on or near the Hudson River, and a year later the Clearwater Festival returned to its spiritual home, the shores of the Hudson River at Croton Point Park.
Since the 1960s, the Clearwater Festival has grown into the country’s largest annual environmental celebration, its music, dance and storytelling, education and activism attracting thousands of people of all ages to the shores of the Hudson River.
About Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
Inspiring, educating and activating millions of people for over 45 years, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater has been at the forefront of the environmental movement as champion of the Hudson River, working to pass landmark legislation like the Clean Water Act, providing innovative educational programs, environmental advocacy, and musical celebrations, including the renowned annual Clearwater Festival.
The organization was founded by music legend and environmental activist Pete Seeger in 1966. The iconic sloop Clearwater was launched in 1969 and is a majestic replica of the sloops that sailed the Hudson in the 18th and 19th centuries. To date, more than half a million people have experienced their first real look at an estuary’s ecosystem aboard the vessel.
The organization’s strong connection to youth, environmental education, and its agenda to create the next generation of environmental leaders are all part of building and strengthening a Green Cities Initiative for a green economy and a more inclusive and diverse environmental movement. Utilizing the greatest natural resource in the region, the Hudson River, Clearwater has become the grassroots model for producing positive changes to protect our planet. For more information, visit www.clearwater.org. Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt nonprofit, member-supported corporation whose mission is to preserve and protect the Hudson River, its tributaries and related bodies of water.
