IWA National Festival


The IWA National Festival & Boat Show run by the Inland Waterways Association is one of the key annual events on the United Kingdom's inland waterways. Generally referred to as the "National" it serves several functions:
The four functions of the event are to some extent conflicting and in recent years the campaigning aspect has been somewhat separated by the creation of an annual "Campaign Cruise".
Arguably it is as a gathering of like minded people that the National has been most influential. The festival brings together people from all over the country who do not meet in numbers except on the festival site. The original decisions to form both the Waterway Recovery Group and the National Association of Boat Owners both arose out of informal discussions held at the National.

Development

The first festival was held in 1950, inspired by car rallies which Tom Rolt, one of the founders of the Inland Waterways Association, had attended prior to the Second World War. It was held at Market Harborough, as the location was not restricted to narrow boats. The rally was called the Market Harborough Festival of Boats and Arts. The arts element of the festival was an addition made by Robert Aickman, and was one of the elements that led to the eventual split between Rolt and Aickman. However, the festival was a success, and one of Rolt's innovations was the awarding of trophies for impressive service or performance, a practice which continued. The A. P. Herbert Trophy was awarded to the person who had travelled the furthest to get to the rally, and was won by Stan Offley, who had covered and had passed through 156 locks. His route from Ellesmere Port had used the Manchester Ship Canal, the Bridgewater Canal, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the Aire and Calder Navigation, the River Trent and the Grand Union Canal. The much shorter route using the Trent and Mersey Canal was unavailable to him, as his boat was wide, and the Trent and Mersey locks were only wide.
Like many of the early rallies, that of 1962 was essentially a campaign to highlight the poor state of a particular waterway, in this case the Stourbridge Canal and its connecting waterways. The decision to hold it at Stourbridge Basin was taken in late 1961, and David Hutchings, by then chairman of the rally committee, approached British Transport Waterways, the operating arm of the British Transport Commission to ensure that the Stourbridge Branch would be dredged, to allow the boats to reach the festival site. Faced with a refusal, Hutchings hired a dragline excavator to carry out the work himself. The British Transport Commission threatened legal action against Hutchings, the Inland Waterways Association and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Society if he proceeded, but that did not stop him. His actions gained widespread media coverage, which was extremely critical of the BTC. The BTC was abolished later that year, and the rally went ahead, with British Waterways staff assisting boats through the decrepit locks. Just two years later, British Waterways and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Society agreed to work on restoring the Stourbridge Canal and the Dudley Canal, and this early example of co-operation resulted in the canals and locks reopening in 1967.
Marple Locks on the Peak Forest Canal was chosen as the site for the 1966 rally, again to highlight their condition. Access had to be along the Macclesfield Canal, as the locks themselves were derelict and could not be used. Cosmetic restoration began the following year, and the canal was reopened in 1974.
1970 was the first occasion on which the national festival was not also a campaign to save a threatened part of the waterways network. It was held at Guildford on the River Wey. Part of the reasoning for this was that the festival was proving to be very popular, and there were a limited number of places that had sufficient display space and water supply for the number of boats wanting to attend. The choice of site was not universally popular, but the rally saw the formal launching of the Waterway Recovery Group, a group of volunteers who travelled the country to carry out restoration tasks on derelict waterways.
Management of the festivals is now handled by a division of Inland Waterways Enterprises Ltd called IWA Festivals. The limited company was set up in 2001 to manage the various trading activities of the Inland Waterways Association.

IWA National Festival sites

The statistics below are mainly taken from the IWA website but are incomplete. Some of these were called rallies rather than festivals and not all were national events.
The final column shows the overall membership of the IWA in the year in question.
Year National Rally LocationWaterway # Boats # Visitors Membership-
1950Market HarboroughGrand Union Canal 12050,000+800-
19511,300+-
1952BreconMonmouthshire and Brecon Canal-
1953MacclesfieldMacclesfield Canal-
1954-
1955SkiptonLeeds and Liverpool Canal-
1956LincolnFossdyke Navigation100+2,000
1957CoventryCoventry Canal-
1958-
1959ChesterShropshire Union Canal-
1960 Stoke on TrentTrent and Mersey Canal-
1961 AylesburyGrand Union Canal-
1962 StourbridgeStourbridge Canal-
1963 Little VeniceGrand Union Canal, Paddington Branch-
1964 Stratford-upon-AvonUpper Avon-
1965 BlackburnLeeds and Liverpool Canal-
1966 MarplePeak Forest Canal 250-
1967 LeicesterGrand Union Canal, Leicester Section 350 5,000-
1968 LiverpoolLeeds and Liverpool Canal 170-
1969 BirminghamBirmingham Canal Navigations-
1970 GuildfordRiver Wey 380 50,000-
1971 NorthamptonRiver Nene 7,000-
1972 LymmBridgewater Canal 500 9,500-
1973 ElyGreat Ouse, Old West River 255 30,000-
1974 NottinghamRiver Trent 600 12,000-
1975 YorkRiver Ouse-
1976 PeterboroughRiver Nene 142 33,000-
1977 ReadingRiver Thames 370-
1978 Titford PoolsTitford Canal 15,000-
1979 NorthwichRiver Weaver 622 30,000 17,728-
1980 Lea ValleyRiver Lee 500 25,000 19,274-
1981 LeedsAire and Calder Navigation 410 18,838-
1982 Titford PoolsTitford Canal 500 40,000-
1983 WiganLeeds and Liverpool Canal 428 50,000-
1984 HawkesburyCoventry Canal 661-
1985 Milton KeynesGrand Union Canal 514 30,000-
1986 BrentfordGrand Union Canal, Main Line 450-
1987 HawkesburyCoventry Canal 530 50,000-
1988 CastlefieldBridgewater Canal-
1989 Waltham AbbeyRiver Lee 525 50,000 22,000-
1990 GloucesterGloucester and Sharpness Canal 22,268-
1991 Windmill EndDudley Canal Line No. 2 768 385,000-
1992 WakefieldAire and Calder Navigation, Wakefield section-
1993 PeterboroughRiver Nene 487 78,000 19,167-
1994 Waltham AbbeyRiver Lee 17,730-
1995 ChesterShropshire Union Canal Main Line-
1996 Windmill EndDudley Canal Line No. 2 17,501-
1997 HenleyRiver Thames 558 27,500-
1998 Salford QuaysManchester Ship Canal-
1999 WorcesterRiver Severn 16,869-
2000 Waltham AbbeyRiver Lee 16,739-
2001 Milton KeynesGrand Union Canal 347 25,000-
2002 HuddersfieldHuddersfield Broad Canal 191 17,544-
2003 Beale ParkRiver Thames 567 32,000-
2004 Burton on TrentTrent and Mersey Canal 24,000-
2005 Preston BrookBridgewater Canal 17,242-
2006 Beale ParkRiver Thames 600 28,000-
2007 St IvesGreat Ouse-
2008Autherley JunctionShropshire Union Canal300-
2009 Red HillRiver Soar-
2010Beale ParkRiver Thames-
2011Burton on TrentTrent and Mersey Canal36025,000-
2013WatfordGrand Union Canal-