Charles River Watershed Association 2025 Herring Festival

A free day of family fun with live music, food trucks, community art, and more!

Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) will host its 2025 Herring Festival, a family-friendly event celebrating the annual migration of fish from the ocean into the Charles River, on Sunday, May 18, at the Watertown dam.

The event is free to attend and will feature communal art making, food trucks, indigenous speakers and dancing, guided tours of the Watertown dam, a live fishing demonstration and fun activities for all ages.

Each spring, the Charles River becomes a vital spawning ground for numerous fish species such as Alewife, Blueback Herring, and American Shad. These fish and their annual migration hold cultural significance to the Massachusett, Wampanoag, and Nipmuc nations—the past, present, and future caretakers of the Charles River and its watershed lands.

This is CRWA’s second annual Herring Festival and is part of the nonprofit’s 60th Anniversary Meet Your Watershed event series. Through the steadfast support of dedicated citizens in the watershed, CRWA has made great strides toward a healthy and resilient Charles River since its formation in 1965. Throughout 2025, CRWA is celebrating 60 years of progress through a series of events across the watershed.

Register here.

Watertown dam 64 Pleasant Street, Watertown.

(To find the festival space, please navigate to Dealtry Memorial Pool parking.)