Welcome to the Potomac Whitewater Festival!

July 11-12, 2009

The Potomac Whitewater Festival is an annual fund raising event that celebrates the Potomac River.

The festival's most dramatic and dazzling event is the Great Falls Race. This downriver race is a quick, adrenaline-packed descent of 60 vertical feet through the Potomac's spectacular class V+ Great Falls. Other festival events include freestyle and squirt boat competitions, beginner whitewater clinics, and much more.

The final heat going through the streamers in the 2005 Great Falls Race. Photo courtesy of Bob Leverton.

For the past eighteen years the festival has been supporting American Whitewater, the nations leading advocate for the protection of our whitewater river resources. AW represents paddlers' interests to restore rivers, eliminate water degradation, improve public land management and protect public access for responsible recreational use.

From the Potomacfest Blog

Gear Swap

Submitted by Thilo Rusche on July 2, 2009 - 15:23.
  1. Money collected for the gear swap is a donation to AW as a part of the fund-raising efforts of PoFest!
  2. You may enter as many non-boat items as you want for a total of $5.
  3. You may enter as many boats as you want. The cost will be $10 per boat.

Nate and Tom could use a few good folks.

Submitted by Nathan on July 1, 2009 - 11:32.

We are in need of a few paddlers to help us conduct The Falls Race. Jobs needed would be timers and starters and a few solid safety folks.  Timers and starters need to have some solid Class 4 skills to get to the timing sites. Safety paddlers need to paddle Class V, have good rope skills, and be very sure footed.

Camping and Lodging

Submitted by Nathan on June 5, 2009 - 12:47.

Camping can be done just upriver from the festival and events site Swains Lock, which is located off of River Rd.  The camping is first come first served and is a primitive site.  See map for directions, link for Details. http://www.nps.gov/archive/choh/Recreation/Camping.html