Clearwater Festival – Great Hudson River Revival

Das legendäre Clearwater Festival - Great Hudson River Revival - in der Nähe von New York City findet dieses Jahr am 20. und 21. Juni statt. Drei Anlässe werden die heurige Ausgabe besonders prägen - darunter der 90. Geburtstag des Festivalgründers Pete Seeger.

Clearwater’s Music and Environmental Festival
Start Your Summer With Music, Dance, Storytelling and More

June 20 & 21 – Summer Solstice
Saturday & Sunday – 10am to Dusk

On the Shores of the Hudson River – Croton Point Park
A natural park on a river peninsula with sandy beaches and sweeping views of the Hudson located in the Village of Croton-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York

Fotos: HRR

The Great Hudson River Revival, Clearwater’s annual music and environmental festival, brings people together from around the country to honor the river through songs, education and action.

This year the Revival will help mark three auspicious occasions:

•  40th anniversary of the launch of sloop Clearwater
•  90th birthday celebration and tribute for Pete Seeger
•  400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson River

Pete Seeger

Inspired by Pete Seeger’s desire to clean up the river over forty years ago, the Revival initially helped raise the funds to build the sloop Clearwater, which has since become a world-renowned floating classroom and a symbol of effective grassroots action. Today, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater is a non-profit organization that sails at the forefront of the nation’s environmental challenges. The revenue raised by the Revival goes to support Clearwater’s numerous educational programs and its work toward environmental and social justice—as well as keeping the Clearwater afloat!

About the Festival

Mission of the Festival

The Great Hudson River Revival is produced by the nonprofit, member-supported, environmental organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. to raise funds and awareness aimed at protecting the river and the earth. 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 river valley.

The Festival makes possible innovative educational initiatives, which have helped more than 430,000 young people and 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 (EPAs) decision to compel one of the Hudson River’s biggest polluters to begin removing toxic PCBs from the water and restoring one of the most polluted portions of the river.

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.

Today, seeing the success of the Clearwater organization, one cannot imagine these achievements being possible without the Clearwater Festival. The Great Hudson River Revival has helped raise funds and served as a beacon toward raising awareness in support of America’s First River. And it all started more than 35 years ago, when it was but the dream of a banjo-picking folksinger.

History of the 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, 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 through out 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.

Contact:

http://www.clearwater.org/festival/index.html