Batteaux and Banjos
WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE FOR
Southeast Coalition of Authentic Reenactors
presents
Batteaux
and Banjos
Step back to a time when life moved at the pace of the river. . .
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Saturday June 14th through
Monday June 16th, 2025
at
JAMES RIVER STATE PARK
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751 Park Road, Gladstone, Virginia 24553
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and join us as we celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the James River.
Batteaux and Banjos is Family Friendly and FREE to the Public!
If you are interested in participating as one of our living history interpreters, please see our Guidelines page and Register.
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​Attractions include:
A Circa 1845-1850 Living History Encampment
A Period Music
A Traditional Artisans
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C BARBECUE C
Pit-Cooked on Site
for Registered Participants
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A Period Church Service and Hymn-Sing
A Talks on Batteau History
and more!
Last but not least, be sure to stick around Monday for the James River Batteau Festival.
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​"Those were the ‘good old days’ of batteaux, — picturesque craft that charmed my young eyes more than all the gondolas of Venice would do now. True, they consumed a week in getting from Lynchburg to Richmond, and ten days in returning against the stream, but what of that? Time was abundant in those days... A batteau on the water was more than a match for the best four or six horse bell-team that ever rolled over the red clay of Bedford, brindle dog and tar-bucket included...
If ever man gloried in his calling, the negro batteau-man was that man... A stalwart, jolly, courageous set they were, plying the pole all day, hauling in to shore at night under the friendly shade of a mighty sycamore, to rest, to eat, to play the banjo, and to snatch a few hours of profound, blissful sleep.”
A from "Canal Reminiscences," by George William Bagby
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Batteaux and Banjos is a free-to-the public living history program celebrating the history and heritage of the James River deep in the heart of the Old Dominion. For three days, some of the finest historical interpreters around come together on the banks of the James to recreate scenes of rural life in Virginia circa 1850. Highlights of the program include Saturday’s lineup of musical performances, pig roast demonstration, and evening dance, Sunday’s period church service and hymn sing, and last but not least the arrival of the batteaux on Monday.
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Interpreters are encouraged to bring and demonstrate their well-researched period crafts, skills, games, and other leisure activities which would have been seen in antebellum Virginia. A special welcome is extended to period musicians of all skill levels — so be sure to bring your historically accurate banjos, bones, and fiddles!
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Batteaux and Banjos is held the third weekend in June to coincide with the James River Batteau Festival, one of the country’s most unique grassroots cultural happenings. Participants in the Batteau Festival come from communities along the upper James and beyond to honor the mostly African American boatmen, who were once the lifeblood of Virginia’s economy, by recreating the eight-day, 120 mile trip from Lynchburg to Maiden’s Landing near Richmond on functioning replicas of the distinctive James River batteaux which carried millions of pounds of tobacco downriver to market annually.
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We are privileged to be hosted by James River State Park in rural Buckingham County, one of only two International Dark Sky Parks in the state, located some 20 miles from Appomattox National Historic Park and 40 miles from Lynchburg. With its natural beauty and seclusion from the modern world, our setting is an attraction in itself and will effortlessly transport you back to a time gone by.
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Numbers are limited, so be sure to sign up soon! Simply click on the "REGISTER" tab at the top of this page and follow the directions there. Registration closes May 1.
Background photograph courtesy of Michael C. Lucas.