Clearwater Festival

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, family-oriented entertainment and storytelling.

In addition to music and dance, a juried craft show, Green Living Expo, working waterfront, environmental education sites, and a "circle of song" featuring audience participation fill out the weekend's schedule.

[3][4][5] Among those who have performed over the years are Janis Ian, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Michelle Shocked, Tish Hinojosa, Dizzy Gillespie, Paul Winter, Odetta, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Dar Williams, The Skatalites, Ani DiFranco, Taj Mahal, Alhaji Bai Konte, Toshi Reagon, Christine Lavin, Steve Earle, Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne, Railroad Earth, Donna the Buffalo, Buckwheat Zydeco, Jonatha Brooke, Drive-By Truckers, Indigo Girls, Josh Ritter, Suzanne Vega, Jorma Kaukonen, Billy Bragg, David Bromberg, Peter Yarrow, The Low Anthem, The Felice Brothers, Punch Brothers, Toubab Krewe, the Foremen, and Justin Townes Earle.

First-timers in 2009 included veteran vocal group The Persuasions, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, psychedelic rock band Dr. Dog, Elvis Perkins in Dearland and A.C. Newman, as well as singer-songwriters Alejandro Escovedo and Allison Moorer, plus bluegrass/jam band acts Old Crow Medicine Show and Cornmeal, and the festival's first-ever hip-hop act ReadNex Poetry Squad.

To raise money to build the Sloop, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater founders Pete Seeger and friends held a series of small fundraising concerts[8] in the Hudson River Valley and at Sandy Hook in New Jersey, and passed a banjo around the crowd to collect donations.