About The Festival

The Great Hudson River Revival and its projects are produced by the nonprofit, member-supported, environmental organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. All proceeds 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.

Over the decades, the festival has helped over 250,000 adults experience the wonders of the Hudson River from aboard the sloop Clearwater. The organization itself has gained worldwide recognition for its leadership in helping to pass landmark environmental laws, both state and federal, including the Clean Water Act. Recently, Clearwater played a key role in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to remove PCBs from the Hudson River. This decision compels one of the Hudson River’s biggest polluters to begin removing the toxic PCBs from the water, thereby expediting the amount of time before the river is restored. In 2002, Pete Seeger, the founder of Clearwater, was named a “Clean Water Hero” for his prominent efforts in the passage of the Clean Water Act. His tireless devotion to working through Clearwater and promoting its message to effectively use the law in prosecuting polluters of America’s waterways has made the Clean Water Act perhaps the most successful environmental law in the country.

The success of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater was greatly supported by The Great Hudson River Revival, which has raised funds and awareness of the emerging and legacy threats facing the Hudson River. And it all started half a century ago, when it was but the dream of a banjo-picking folksinger.

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, he 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, then in 1978 the gathering set down roots at a historic river park, Croton Point, on the Hudson River, and was coined 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. The much-beloved event grew to be one of the country’s oldest and largest annual music and environmental festivals, known for its award-winning Zero Waste program, inspiring similar practices at festivals around the country.

The event continued in its traditional form until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and was produced virtually in 2021. The Great Hudson River Revival continues at Clearwater through projects including the annual Clearwater Folk Picnic, coordinating music for the Kingston Earth Fair, music sails, and various other concerts and performances.

The Great Hudson River Revival and its projects are organized by Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a member-supported environmental nonprofit. All proceeds support Clearwater’s education and advocacy efforts to preserve and protect the Hudson River and its tributaries, and steward an intergenerational community of Hudson River advocates.