New Old Festival

The Rivertown Revival in Petaluma, California, is a one-day celebration of the town's history as trading post along the Petaluma River. It's also a free event, although proceeds from an affiliated development campaign helped raise funds for the Friends of the Petaluma River and the Petaluma Arts Council. This seems like a great way to combine community support with local history, visitor participation (people are encouraged to wear vintage costumes of their own design) and just plain fun -- like an art boat competition and live music featuring local performers. People wandering along the river with parasols, top hats and handlebar moustaches…what could be better? Event organizers say they anticipated around 1500 visitors, but reports indicate that around 4000 showed up. Needless to say, discussions about next year's Rivertown Revival are already in the works. Petaluma is about an hour north of San Francisco, so many people probably came from out of the area. The fact that the organizers were able to successfully launch a new event with an old-timey vibe is also intriguing: people like costumes and banjoes, especially along a riverfront. Using the momentum to support the Petaluma Arts Council is icing on the cake, since local budgets for the arts have been on a steep downhill slope for years. Hats off to the Rivertown Revival folks -- they managed to combine history, participation, fun, and much needed budget support in one attractive package.