IWA Ware Boat Festival returns Friday 30^th June to Sunday 2^nd July 2023 for a weekend of boating activity and socialising. The boat festival is an integral and important part of the wider Ware Festival running throughout July.

Booking is now open.  You can either apply online or by downloading an application form.

Join us at the beautiful and historic market town of Ware on the upper reaches of the River Lee as they wend their way through the middle of the town, overlooked by the unique and iconic Victorian gazebos.  You’ll find activities provided as part of the boat festival (Friday evening river-side barbeque / Saturday afternoon themed boat parade and boat handling competition / Saturday evening Haslam’s hijinks quiz / Sunday river-side boaters’ service and coffee & cakes) but plenty else to see and do as the boat festival runs alongside the wider Ware Festival activities.  The river has played a key part in the development of the town, in particular providing a means of transport for agricultural products – especially malted grains from the 140 malthouses of the 19^th century – into the heart of London, but before then represented a boundary between the Danelaw and Anglo Saxon lands and – further back still – provided a crossing point of the River Lea for the Roman Ermine Street.

Please join us for the festival – wherever you have come from, you will be warmly welcomed.