On a warm Saturday in June 2025, something remarkable happened at Croton Point Park. Thousands of people gathered on a riverfront lawn in Westchester County, Tom Chapin and David Amram took the stage, dedicated their set to Pete and Toshi Seeger, and an entire crowd held hands and sang together. Just like that, a tradition that had been dormant since 2019 came roaring back to life.
The Hudson River Music Festival is the spiritual successor to the Great Hudson River Revival — better known as the Clearwater Festival — which Pete Seeger founded in the mid-1960s to raise funds for cleaning and protecting the Hudson River. For more than three decades, the Clearwater Festival drew upwards of 15,000 people to Croton Point Park every June, making it the oldest and largest music and environmental festival in America. When COVID shut it down after 2019, many feared that chapter had closed for good.
It had not. Presented by Riverfest FPS (For Pete’s Sake), Dayglo Presents, and the Harper House Music Foundation, the Hudson River Music Festival debuted in 2025 with a lineup and a mission that would have made the Seegers proud. It returns for its second year on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 21, 2026, and it is already shaping up to be one of the most important single-day festivals in the Hudson Valley.
The Music
The 2026 lineup is a carefully curated blend of jam, folk, country, roots, and funk spread across three stages. Warren Haynes — the Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule guitarist who is one of the most respected musicians in American rock — headlines the Hudson Stage. Grahame Lesh and Friends bring a supergroup configuration that includes Rick Mitarotonda of Goose, Oteil Burbridge of Dead and Company and the Allman Brothers Band, Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Rob Barraco of the Phil Lesh Quintet, and Jennifer Hartswick of the Trey Anastasio Band.
The 2025 festival featured over 125 volunteers helping to create a zero-waste environment, and that commitment to environmental responsibility is baked into every aspect of the event. Pete and Toshi’s Grove offers a peaceful area for reflection amid the day’s activities. The Circle of Song invites audience participation in communal singing — a direct descendant of Pete Seeger’s hootenanny tradition. The Earthball, the Arm of the Sea Puppet Show, and the Riverkeeper Boat Flotilla — where colorful boats gather along the Hudson and move in harmony — give the festival a visual and experiential dimension that goes well beyond the music stages.
This is a single-day event, which keeps the energy concentrated and the commitment accessible. Gates open in the morning, music runs from late morning through the evening, and the whole thing unfolds at a pace that never feels rushed or overwhelming. Families are everywhere. The vibe leans more picnic than rager — blankets on the grass, kids dancing near the stage, coolers and conversation.
Food vendors serve the festival, though specific options vary by year. The broader Croton-on-Hudson area — a charming Westchester County river town with a walkable downtown — offers restaurants, coffee shops, and local markets within a short drive for those who want to extend the day into a full Hudson Valley outing. The park itself has picnic areas and green space beyond the festival footprint, and the riverfront location means there is always a breeze off the water to take the edge off a summer afternoon.
Getting There & Know Before You Go
Croton Point Park is located in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, about 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It is one of the most accessible festival sites in the region — the Croton-Harmon Metro-North station is nearby, making it possible to attend without a car if you are coming from New York City. Driving from the Capital Region takes about two hours south on the Thruway.
General admission tickets are available, with children twelve and under admitted free with an adult GA ticket. VIP packages offer upgraded access. Parking is available on-site. The festival takes place rain or shine, so check the forecast and plan accordingly — there is limited natural shade on the riverfront lawn, and a June day on the Hudson can be warm.
Bring sunscreen, a blanket or low-back chair, water, and layers for the evening — temperatures can drop noticeably once the sun goes behind the hills along the river. If you have kids, the North Star Stage programming will keep them engaged all day without you needing to haul them across a sprawling festival ground. The Rock and Roll Playhouse, which celebrated the music of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger with separate kid-friendly performances in 2025, is the kind of thoughtful programming that makes this genuinely family-friendly rather than just family-tolerant.
Why This Festival Matters
The Hudson River Music Festival matters because it proves that the best ideas do not die — they evolve. Pete Seeger spent his life demonstrating that music could be a tool for change, and that gathering people on the banks of a river could remind them what they were fighting for. The Clearwater Festival carried that mission for decades. When it went dark, the spirit did not disappear. It just waited for the right people to pick it back up.
What Riverfest FPS, Dayglo Presents, and the Harper House Music Foundation have built is not a nostalgia act. It is a living continuation of a tradition that connects the folk revival of the 1960s to the jam scene of today, wrapped in a genuine environmental mission and set against one of the most beautiful stretches of river in New York State. In a festival landscape dominated by corporate sponsorships and influencer culture, the Hudson River Music Festival is something increasingly rare — an event that stands for something beyond its own ticket sales.
