Canoeists & Kayakers are absolutely welcomed and encouraged to join us in enjoying the river and celebrating the history of the Batteau Era. (1775-1820)

Camping for Non-Batteau crew is available and we ask for a $6.00 donation per night or $26.00 per week which can be paid online or on site at the T-shirt booth. We ask for this minimal voluntary payment to help defray the significant expenses of putting on the festival. Batteaux Crew are covered by the fee each batteau pays to participate.

Food Vendors will be at the sites listed below this drop down menu. Please be aware that despite the best efforts of those helping to arrange meals and support for the batteau festival, anything can happen as we are often in remote areas outside cell service. To whatever extent possible, we need to support the food vendors so that they are wanting to come back in future years. But it is prudent to have backup food in the event you arrive at a site after the food vendors are gone, particularly if we do in fact get into a low water situation.

Water is only available at - Bent Creek store across James, Howardsville on site and at store, and Scottsville behind James River Reeling and Rafting and at various stores. We recognize that this leaves need for some prior planning as the JRBF is no longer able to provide water given health dept regulations. There will be a limited amount of “emergency” bottled water for sale on the Ice Trailer so please take advantage of this if needed.

Ice will be available at each site either at stores within walking distance or by the festival ice trailer. Ice trailer should be at Galts Mill, Bent Creek, Wingina, Slate River, and Cartersville.

Where Ice is provided by the festival it is on a first come first served basis for sale in the AM while limited supplies last. It is difficult to obtain the volume of ice needed and impossible to predict the exact amount needed, so please buy only what you absolutely need and be flexible.

Portable toilets are available at all sites for your enjoyment! Consider bringing paper!

Trash will be picked up at all sites, some places the county provides dumpsters, some sites the Batteau Festival will have a trailer. Please bring your trash to the location where it is being collected and help us leave the property cleaner then when we arrived.

Membership in the VCNS (Virginia Canals and Navigations Society) is very strongly encouraged of everyone who enjoys the James River and Batteau Festival. The VCNS is the parent organization for the JRBF, and without it there will be no Batteau Festival. If you enjoy the JRBF and want to see it continue, join and become active in the VCNS!

VCNS Membership can be paid online or at the T-Shirt booth.

Depending on if you’re in a Kayak, Canoe, or Batteau low water obviously affects us differently. Low water for most means leave early, don’t stop as much as usual, and maybe work a little more during stretches of the river where there is plenty of water. Make sure you have good river shoes and expect to be out of your boat getting off and around rocks and shoals. Many experienced Batteau Crews look forward to the challenge of getting down river in low water levels, but it’s clearly more work and inexperienced crews will likely struggle. We all need to work together and when someone’s hung up, determine if it looks like they need assistance and take appropriate action.

Check Water Gauges. These USGS realtime stream flow are great and easy to use, the link here is for the one in Scottsville but there are others I follow at Holcomb Rock above Reusens, Bent Creek as well as Scottsville. It’s a great resource to see river levels.