Rivertown Revival is an art and music festival designed to celebrate the Petaluma Slough (aka river).  It is a fund raiser for Friends of the Petaluma River (FOPR), but also an off-shoot of its mission and programing. FOPR believes that if we can facilitate a love affair between the Community and the river, the Community will want to conserve and protect it for generations to come.

With the support of music director Josh Windmiller we feature local bands in the Americana style of music and beyond.  We have had local sculpture artists line our paths, and have featured multiple kinetic sculpture artists with large scale, and often interactive work.  Artists who have participated in past festivals include: David Best, Scott Collinson, Kevin Clark, and Stephen Lockert. This year, thanks to the Creative Responders Grant, we will have an interactive art piece by Stephen Lockert,  and a collaborative piece between visual artist Mae Blackmore and music by The Crux.

Programming at this festival includes multiple playful opportunities to create something out of nothing.  For instance, in the past we have invited attendees to pound metal into flowers for an 80 foot Flower Tower that was being built for Burning Man.  We have encouraged participants to use provided ‘ingredients’ to contribute to a giant boat alter.  We have taught children, and adults,  how to make rope, tie sailing knots, juggle, make boats out of wine corks, dye cloth naturally, make puppets out of socks and hula hoops out of irrigation tubing. We are an eco-friendly event that is modeled after turn of the century river festivals so  we avoid all things plastic and mass produced.  We decorate the event with found and recycled materials only and like to brag that we turn trash into cool junk! 😉 We create an environment where we encourage participants to imagine a world without televisions, iPhones and store bought toys.  In a nutshell, we encourage participants to listen to music,  get on the water, play, use their hands and make art.