The FIBArk Whitewater Festival will celebrate its 75th anniversary from June 15-18 in Salida this year, and everyone from amateurs to pros is welcome. Aside from whitewater events, the festival will also include various bike and foot races, a carnival and even live music.

“It’s been tough in the years since the pandemic, but this year we’re back bigger and better than ever,” FIBArk Event Chairwoman Lindsay Sutton-Stephens said. “We really want that to translate.”

FIBArk, which stands for First in Boating in the Arkansas River, was established in the 1930s to cultivate opportunities for locals to participate in and learn more about whitewater paddle sports. The festival exists as a fundraising event to support youth paddling programs and local boaters.

One of the festival’s traditions is the Hooligan Race, which is open to anything that isn’t a boat. Sutton-Stephens mentioned participants using things like couches in years past.

“During the Hooligan race, we get to see people’s creativity and their passion for the race,” Sutton-Stephens said. “It is hysterical, wild, and wonderful to see what people put into it.”

On the banks, attendees can participate in various running races, mountain bike races and river dog events where dogs retrieve items from the river. The volunteer board, which Sutton-Stephens said has many mothers with small children, worked hard this year to provide quiet spaces for moms and sections with crafts and other activities for younger kids.

In the afternoons and evenings, FIBArk will host 10 live bands with headliners like Roundhouse Assembly, Pimps of Joytime, Hell’s Belles and Tenth Mountain Division.

Tenth Mountain Division is as Colorado as it gets. The group claims to not belong to a genre, and their sound defies residency even within a singular decade. Most accurately described as a sort of new-wave Americana, Tenth Mountain Division features influences from Southern classic rock, bluegrass and rock ’n’ roll.

“I think this set will be pretty original-heavy,” one of Tenth Mountain Division’s members Andrew Cooney said. “We just finished recording a new album, so we’ll play some new songs and a lot of stuff off of the last album. We’ll also throw in some crowd-pleasing covers.”

They’ll be closing out the FIBArk weekend festival with their set on Sunday, June 18.