Early Saturday morning, crowds gathered at Sharon Jones Amphitheater in North Augusta to enjoy the Savannah River and promote local tourism and community. The festival highlighted several races and featured live music from local band, The Mason Jars.
The Rockin’ and Raftin’ Festival, an event proposed by Mayor Briton Williams, was designed to help promote recreational usage of Riverside Village in a hopefully expanding manner for the future.
“I’ve lived here 27 years. We’ve never had an event on the water. North Augusta — we’re very good about building things next to the rive,r but it’s been so long since I remember ever having an event on the actual river,” said Williams.
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In collaboration with the Augusta Rowing Club, different categories of races which occurred included: tandem kayaks, individual kayaks, build your own raft, paddle boarding and inflatables. The latter being an audience favorite which featured two ladies racing a giant pink flamingo floatie and a yellow duck inflatable.
Kayaks were also provided free of charge for those who wished to get out into the water and splash around after the races.
Lee Jones, part of the recreation team which helped set up the event, said, “It was really a team effort” and said he believes it will “keep growing from this point out.”
The event featured something for everyone, from food trucks, mini bars and vendors to games for children to play while parents watched and cheered for the races. Games like soccer, giant Jenga, frisbee golf, tic-tac-toe and four in a row were spread across the grass for families to play with throughout the event.
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Local attendee and mother, Holly Gordon, said that her favorite part of the festival was the music performed by The Mason Jars and thought the community benefited from it.
“I think anything that brings people together is a plus. Anytime you can bring food and fun, I think the community definitely benefits, for sure,” said Gordon.
Will Fagan, another festival attendee, shared his favorite parts as well.
“The food trucks and the tap truck. I think it’s a really interesting idea to be able to do that instead of having to have a brick-and-mortar type shop or trailer like everybody else does. I think that’s interesting,” said Fagan.
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Fagan expressed that the festival was a “really great starting point” for the first year and thinks it “can grow from where it is.”
“The atmosphere is nice, and you can kind of just wander around and see all kinds of different things,” said Fagan.
North Augusta’s mayor hopes that the festival will become an annual tradition or even lead to more in the future.
“I would love to see this expand even more, maybe we continue to have the water element, continue to have the food truck element and the music element. But — you know the greenway runs by — maybe we expand it and have even a running race or expand it into having a cycling race,” said Williams. “Maybe just make it a whole weekend. Could you imagine if we had a cycle race on Friday and then a big party, and on Saturday have a running race and then the river race?”
Williams expressed the town council’s desire to promote the local economy, tourism, and businesses.
“Part of our council’s commitment is wanting to promote tourism, and one of the ways we can promote tourism is, not just bringing people here, but also having organic tourism from our own citizens and give them an opportunity to come out and hang out by the water,” said Williams.
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Local employee of the CSRA kayak rental vendor, Keith Bartley, expressed his favorite aspects of the festival were the music and “just the music and being around people.” He also agrees with the city council on the importance of promoting tourism and the riverfront.
“It gets more business and more people which gets the money coming into the county and the state,” said Bartley.
Another vendor of Half-Moon Outfitters, Alex Baker, shared on the ease of participating and getting involved in the festival.
“Yeah, it was really easy, the organizers reached out and it was just a little bit of paperwork and then we just showed up, set up, and that was it,” Baker said. “I honestly didn’t know what to expect that much for it being a first-year event here in North Augusta since, you know, most of these other events are happening in Augusta, so I didn’t know. But I think there’s been a lot of great foot traffic.”
Williams also hopes that by holding more events on the water, more citizens will cultivate a love for the Savannah River and participate in cleaning programs like the upcoming Trash Bash at the Border Challenge in September.
“We need to educate people that the river is an asset and that means that we need to take care of it and do everything we need to,” said Williams.
Across the board, almost everyone shared the hope that in the future there will be more advertising in order to encourage additional people to come out and enjoy the festivities and races next year.
Liz Wright is a correspondent for The Augusta Press.
