The Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership, which organizes the Ridgway RiverFest, has decided that the show must go on this year despite record-setting low flows.
In its 11th year at Rollans Park in Ridgway, the RiverFest again will showcase the Junk of the Unc, a competition in which homemade watercraft ride down a short stretch of river. The Junk will go on at 2 p.m. Competitors who start and end the race on their crafts are eligible to win.
“If Junk of the Unc competitors have to pick up and walk their crafts down part of the race course, so be it – some call that portaging, getting from one section of sufficient water to another,” Tanya Ishikawa, communications director of the watershed partnership, said in a news release. “The historic drought this year really helps us realize the value of water for all its diverse uses. Though it’s not optimal for many river recreation activities, the festival is adapting with entertaining alternatives plus we have our usual on-land fun like a great band performance, an inspiring Ute culture presentation and an fish footprint art project.”
The river races to the Ridgway Reservoir will be replaced this year with relay races at 11:30 a.m. This year, kayak racers will be paired into teams with paddleboarders and tubers to race down and back up a short course on the river, Ishikawa said. The fastest three teams will be awarded RiverFest trophies created by Ridgway artist Joann Taplin.
Also new this year, the safety rope bag toss at 11 a.m. will test competitors’ life-saving skills as they throw a safety rope bag to a “celebrity” rescue victim in the river. The most accurate toss qualifies for a RiverFest award.
Returning after a three-year hiatus, the rubber duck race will give the top three winners gift certificates worth $100, $50 and $25 for the River Rat Marketplace silent auction. Each person who registers will get one free entry, with additional entries costing $3.
The live band performance from 3 to 6 p.m. will feature the six-piece bluegrass band feature Sugar and the Mint, from Prescott, Arizona, which was the winner of the 2017 Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s band contest, Ishikawa said.
Ute Mountain Ute Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk and her father, Normal Lopez, are scheduled to provide a cultural presentation from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Lopez-Whiteskunk advocated for land, air, water and animals from an early age, and spent 10 years in the Information Technology field working for Chief Dull Knife College, the Southern Ute Indian and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribes of Colorado. She has traveled extensively throughout the nation presenting and sharing the Ute culture through song, dance and presentations. Lopez, who learned from his grandfather and uncles how to make flutes from the hearts of the cedar trees, has played the traditional style. The birds and wind inspire his unique sounds.
The Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership also will have scientists showing and telling about water ecology and research, the Ridgway State Park will have rangers sharing information and games, San Miguel Power Association will demonstrate renewable energy equipment, and Trout Unlimited will do fly fishing lessons.
Also look for the local brews, margaritas, food by Guru’s and Full Tilt Saloon, and snow cones by Voyager Youth Program.
