Waynestock Outdoor Adventure & Music Festival

Waynestock earns its “backyard Bonnaroo” reputation not from scale but from specificity. Held at Cantrell Ultimate Rafting Campground and Resort at 49 Cantrell Drive in Fayetteville, West Virginia, the event plants a music and adventure festival inside the New River Gorge National Park corridor, one of the most dramatic river landscapes in the eastern United States. Past editions have run over the June 19–21 weekend, with a 2026 edition anticipated; confirm dates and registration at cantrellultimatecamping.com before booking travel. The format mixes structured programming with the loose improvisational energy that characterizes events where the venue is a working outdoor adventure operation and attendees are camping on the property.

The festival’s dual character is genuine rather than marketed: morning and afternoon hours belong to the New River Gorge itself, with whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and hiking on trails within the National Park forming the activity base. Cantrell Ultimate Rafting is a fully operational outfitter that runs guided river trips on the New and Gauley Rivers from the same property, and festival attendees can book half or full-day rafting packages through the resort’s standard operation. The New River’s Lower Gorge section, the one most associated with the park’s white water reputation, offers Class IV and V rapids that define what technical river rafting looks like for participants who have progressed beyond introduction-level experience. The Upper Gorge runs gentler Class I to III water that works for families with teenagers and some prior paddling experience.

## After the River, the Stage

As the sun drops behind the gorge walls, Cantrell’s riverside grounds transform into a music venue. Past lineups have reflected the event’s regional and outlaw spirit: local and regional acts across rock, folk, Americana, and outlaw country, with late-night acoustic sets and bonfire sessions extending the evening without requiring everyone to commit to a second stage sprint. Craft beer, wine, and food vendors operate through the evening. Workshops in rock climbing and whitewater rafting have been offered at past editions for attendees who want to learn technique alongside the recreational experience.

> Getting There
> – Cantrell Ultimate Rafting: 49 Cantrell Dr, Fayetteville, WV 25840. From US-19, follow signs into Fayetteville and south toward the New River Bridge area.
> – The nearest airports are Beckley (Raleigh County Memorial Airport, about 35 miles south) and Charleston (Yeager Airport, about 60 miles northwest).
> – BaseCamp Humboldt-style on-site camping is available at Cantrell during festival weekend. Airbnb options exist in Fayetteville; additional lodging is in Oak Hill and Beckley.
> – The New River Gorge National Park Bridge at Fayetteville is the longest steel arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the site of Bridge Day each October, when it opens for BASE jumping and rappelling. The view from the visitor center overlook above the bridge is worth 20 minutes of anyone’s festival morning before the first river trip launches.

## For Families

Families with teenagers who are physically capable of Class II to III water are well served by the Upper Gorge rafting packages available through Cantrell’s outfitter operation. The campground setting and the bonfire/acoustic evening format are inclusive in a way that ticketed concert formats rarely are, and the pace of a weekend where the morning’s exhaustion is river-shaped tends to make the evening music feel earned rather than ambient. Children under 12 are better served by day hikes in the New River Gorge park’s accessible trail network and the downstream swimming holes that appear on river bends near the resort.

## West Virginia’s Lakes and Rivers

The New River is the star of this corridor, but the Greenbrier River, Summersville Lake, and Gauley River system within an hour’s drive add significant waterfront range to a weekend in Fayetteville. Summersville Lake is one of West Virginia’s most vivid and largest reservoirs, with Caribbean-blue water over limestone bedrock that makes it look implausible for Appalachia. Browse available properties near the New River Gorge on Lake.com, including Greenbrier River corridor rentals that put you within reach of both the festival grounds and West Virginia’s broader mountain lake system for a full spring or summer week in the gorge country.