Virtual Gauley Fest 2020 – Great Success!

All of our festivals, including our traditional Gauley Fest throwdown in West Virginia, unfortunately had to be canceled this year. We missed seeing every single one of you in person this year, but it was awesome to connect virtually with our community and to celebrate the Gauley River, our stewardship success in the region, and to give away some great prizes from our awesome industry partners. It's also something to be thankful for, that the pandemic may have stopped our regular gathering of the wild things, but it's not stopping the rivers from flowing, and Gauley releases have provided an excellent opportunity for boaters to get outside and enjoy some quality whitewater this fall. 

Gauley Fest usually provides an opportunity to gather the boating community, celebrate and enjoy the rivers we work hard to protect, and importantly build support for AW. New and renewing memberships are a huuuuge part of this event and we had to get creative with a way to still engage our members and to fill the gap of not hosting it. Well, we did get creative, with a cool short film premier, updates from our executive director, board president and stewardship staff, games with special guests Clay Wright and Shane Benedict, and of course tons of giveaways. If you joined or renewed before or during our virtual Gauley Fest 2020 THANK YOU! We had a great turnout of support, including over 202 new or renewing memberships through our Gauley Fest online membership form. 

Virtual Gauley Fest 2020 really was a great celebration and served well as a time to revisit why we love paddling the Gauley so much and all of the hard work AW puts into providing whitewater boating opportunities for our community. You can relive all the action and watch the recorded event here. Thanks to our sponsors, panelists and viewers. Hope to see you all next year in West Virginia!