In just three years, the festival has grown into one of Melbourne’s major cultural and environmental events, inspiring connection to Country, action for the river, and collaboration across communities.

Kicking off Saturday 6th September and closing on World Rivers Day, Sunday 28th September, the festival is hosting events from platypus spotting and sunset paddles, to gig nights and art-led sensory walks, plus a variety of family-friendly activities.

“After a cold Melbourne winter, Riverfest comes at the perfect time to spring us back to life,” says Janet Bolitho, President of the YRKA. “From educational and cultural events to outdoor adventures, the Riverfest program has something for everyone”.

Riverfest is presented by the Yarra Riverkeeper Association (YRKA), a major community voice for the Yarra, Birrarung for the past 20 years. Now in its third year, the Birrarung Riverfest has doubled in scale and tripled in attendance. In 2025, the YRKA has convened over 200+ event hosts and volunteers across diverse sectors and is expecting more than 2,000 participants.

By supporting education and stewardship along the river, Birrarung Riverfest is helping to create a more liveable, climate-ready city. Events include:

This year, the festival aims to raise awareness of stormwater pollution and its threat to the health of the river. “Birrarung is under pressure from city growth, climate change, and stormwater pollution. Now more than ever, it needs our care,” says Janet Bolitho. “With everything that washes down our street drains ending up in a local waterway, it’s important that we understand and reduce the impact of litter and pollution on our beloved river.”

Major partners for the 2025 Birrarung Riverfest are the Burndap Birrarung burndap umarkoo collaboration and Melbourne Water, sharing YRKA’s vision for a healthy, protected and loved river.
Together, they are helping protect the single living entity and amplify the community voice for the Birrarung. “Everyone can be a Riverkeeper,” says Janet Bolitho “and it’s up to all of us to help the Yarra.”

About Yarra Riverkeeper Association
The Yarra Riverkeeper Association works in support of a Yarra, Birrarung that is healthy, protected and loved. Our purpose is to act as advocates, collaborators and convenors by connecting the many people and organisations who care for the river as a single living entity. Our aim for Riverfest is to celebrate the river and connect Victorian’s to the Birrarung in a profound way that will activate heads, hearts and hands in service to the river.Acknowledgement of First Nations peoples
The Yarra Riverkeeper Association acknowledges that the lands and waterways of the Yarra, Birrarung catchment, are the unceded territories of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Bunurong peoples. We pay respect to Traditional Owners, who have, and continue, to care for Country. We acknowledge that the river now called Yarra has always been known as the Birrarung by its custodians.