American Whitewater's is proud to once again hold the Feather River Festival on the North Fork Feather! This festival and fundraiser mark the annual celebration of American Whitewater’s stewardship work on the North Fork Feather River and beyond. At its core, it’s a celebration of AW’s successful efforts to restore ecological and recreational flows to the Feather River watershed and reconnect the community to this special place. The festival is put on through efforts of American Whitewater, Chico Paddleheads and many dedicated volunteers from the paddling community.

This festival, September 26 - 27, 2025 brings together boaters who run every type of whitewater craft down three distinct sections of river: the fun Class III rapids of Roger’s Flat, the challenging Class V Tobin, and the exciting Class IV Lobin. As many other whitewater sections in the state have long since run dry, these late-season releases on the Feather bring the West Coast paddling community together to enjoy granite paradise among old friends and new.

Friday Night film festival, Saturday night party, silent auction, and of course as many laps on granite paradise as you can paddle! A very fun base flow of 400cfs will be available in advance of the whitewater releases - 900 cfs Saturday September 27th and Sunday September 28th.

On Friday night, American Whitewater will kick off the weekend with the film festival and the all important Stewardship update on our work. On Saturday night, Habanero’s Taqueria food truck arrives to feed the masses and Sierra Nevada will provide the beer before live music and dancing into the wee hours of the night! As a fundraiser for American Whitewater, the Saturday night Silent Auction will have boats and gear at awesome prices for bidding. There will also be plenty of vendor and sponsor booths to amass boater swag and merchandise!

All current American Whitewater members will have free admission to the weekend’s events. Renew or sign up for a new AW membership to support our stewardship work and you will be entered into our drawing for a new piece of drygear! You don’t have to wait until Feather Fest to renew your membership - current members will receive a raffle ticket and free entry as well and can save some time in line.

Volunteers will have their names added to a separate Volunteer Raffle. Sign up to volunteer and help make this year’s event a success! https://volunteersignup.org/AXBQX

Note: American Whitewater will not be sponsoring or holding a Tobin Downriver Race or a Rock Creek Slalom this year but we encourage boaters of all types to enjoy the recreational releases at their leisure.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

Where: The Indian Jim Campground, located at Plumas County mile marker 8.22 on Highway 70 near Tobin, CA. "Indian Jim Campground" is searchable in most major maps apps.

As a reminder to be respectful of the homelands of the Konkow Valley Band of Maidu, the Feather River Festival is a LEAVE NO TRACE event. Please, pack it in and pack it out. There are no trash cans nor is there trash pick-up available at the event.

NO DRINKING WATER is available at the Festival, please BYO water.

There is FREE camping at the Festival site. Additional free camping is available one mile up-stream at Roger’s Flat or one mile down-stream at Tobin Vista. Parking is tight, try to carpool!

There is no shuttle service; however, there are hundreds of cool boater folks just like you… just meet your neighbor for guaranteed fun times and great boating!

VOLUNTEERING: Feather Fest runs on volunteers! Sign up to volunteer here and get included in some great swag giveaways while knowing you've helped make this year's festival a success: https://volunteersignup.org/AXBQX.

CAMPFIRE RESTRICTIONS! Open campfires are not allowed. You are also required to have a free permit from Calfire to use a camp stove. Get yours before the event HERE.