In farming communities facing rapid change, cultural gatherings play an important role in strengthening connections whilst acknowledging and celebrating singular stories of courage and resilience.

River Rites was such a gathering – a contemporary and localised rural rite; a rite that allowed the imagination to run wild and resist the quashing of human spirit; a process celebrating the resilience of rural communities encountering dramatic change and an honoring of the now fragile river system which served to build them.

River Rites draws on the worldwide cultural tradition of exhibitions and performances tied to seasonal revolutions, cyclical change and folklore in the form of elaborate disguises and publicly celebrated rituals. These rites link residents to their past and a future where their resilience is feted and their spirit of place is ‘unleashed’.