By Natalie Emanuele, Nate Seltenrich

After 15 years of riverside camaraderie and conservation, Petaluma’s annual slough celebration, Rivertown Revival, is on pause this year as organizers take time to gather new ideas and personnel.

The decision was made in February during a preliminary planning meeting where one member of the small, all-volunteer team that runs the event suggested they “take a vacation this year,” said Elizabeth Howland, who has helped organize Rivertown Revival since its inception.

An official announcement of the hiatus was posted on the Rivertown Revival website on April 13. 

Founded in 2010 by conservation group Friends of the Petaluma River, Rivertown Revival is both a fundraiser and a celebration of the town’s namesake waterway through community, art, and music – with a distinctly steampunk style. 

Festival art curator Margaret Kuffel, a longtime volunteer and former Friends of the Petaluma River board member, said the organization believes that a community that loves the environment becomes a community that protects the environment. Even during the COVID-19 lockdown, Rivertown Revival fostered that communal spirit through a series of remote live concerts.

But after 15 years of planning a festival that eats up most of each summer, the core group of seven or so volunteers decided to take a break in 2026.

“We aren’t tired of it, just tired,” said Howland, herself a board member of Friends of the Petaluma River. 

The timing was right for a pause, agreed Kuffel. “Everything in life deserves to have a moment of reflection and some time for creative juices to sort of bubble back up,” she said. “I think we just all decided we needed that kind of time for ourselves and for ourselves individually and for ourselves collectively.” 

While the event has become a summertime staple in Petaluma, pulling it together is no small feat. Rivertown Revival is held at Steamer Landing, a city-owned park on a peninsula with little more than lovely views and a barn.

“We build Rivertown out of kind of nothing out there,” Kuffel said. “No light, no power, no tents, no shade.”

Infrastructure is one of the largest and most costly undertakings in bringing the festival to life, especially during the peak of summer, with some years seeing temperatures over 100 degrees during the event. Partially in response to years of extreme heat, in 2024 Rivertown shifted to an evening format beginning at 5 p.m.

Costs have also doubled since the pandemic, though organizers have made an effort not to raise ticket prices. Kuffel expressed that while the events have been successful, less and less money has been coming back to Friends of the Petaluma River. 

Howland, Kuffel, and Executive Director Stephanie Bastianon each explained that the core group organizing Rivertown Revival has thinned over the years, leaving a heavier workload for the remaining members. The group is currently looking for more volunteers to “share the wealth of the creation” as plans for future festivals take shape, Howland said. 

The individuals behind Rivertown Revival say they’re still passionate about the event and already have tentative plans for a return in 2027 as well as some smaller spin-off events, Bastianon noted. The team intends above all to keep the community spirit alive while increasing support for environmental conservation.

“We hope to come back next year and really build upon what we've started to create with this evening event,” Bastianon said while sharing her ideas about the event going forward, including new ways to incorporate the river itself into the festival. “It’s good to take a break, but I think everyone’s been missing it and thinking about it and are excited to come back.”

Contributor Natalie Emanuele wrote the story. Editor Nate Seltenrich assisted with reporting.