It’s a festival to float your boat, Richmond’s 22nd Annual Richmond Maritime Festival takes place from 11am–6pm on Aug. 23–24, 2025. The free nautical-themed event offers visitors the chance to take part in the long, maritime legacy of Steveston. With fun, interactive activities, live music, puppet shows, art exhibitions, and more the festival has something for everyone.
The 2025 edition will feature its largest music stage ever, with a line-up dedicated to local bands with a maritime flair. Vancouver and Nanaimo-based singer-songwriters Murfitt & Main will animate the Port of Call stage with their original works steeped in the living tradition of roots music, featuring bass, guitar, banjo, and mandolin. Energizing and award-winning Collage Trad are a melting pot of local fiddle traditions with a dash of swing, a pinch of jazz, and a sprinkle of rock. Festival favourites including the Irish Wakers, Nautical Notes, and The Whiskeydicks, will return this year as well.
Families with young children will enjoy Seaside Puppet Theatre, featuring music by accordionist Dan Propp and performances by Lulu the Mermaid, Rikki the Rat, and more puppet friends. The family-focused Octopus Garden will have free face painting and street-theatre picture-card shows by Stories on Wheels.
Also returning this year is the Knitting Tree, a community-activated project that pays tribute to this craft’s long history with fishermen and sailors. Visitors can bring their own knitting needles and hooks to contribute to the fabric collage all weekend. Other hands-on workshops will include cyanotype prints with Grace Gihm, net-making with Cat Hart, design-your-own-boat craft with Ralph Heading, and origami with Aiko Matsushiba.
What’s a maritime festival without boats? Down on the Steveston docks, visitors will be able to take in the beauty of restored heritage boats. This year will see the return of local favourites, such as the 103-year-old SS Master tugboat — the oldest working wooden-hulled steam-powered tug in the world — and Westcoast work boats like the MV Gikumi, Midnight Sun, Sandra Jean II, and Island Provider. Boat lovers can also stop by the Richmond Boat Builders workshop to see Britannia Shipyards’ maritime legacy in action. Explore the current restoration work on the 62 year-old Crystal S, a 37-foot combination gillnetter and troller fishing vessel that was built in Steveston. The wooden vessel has fished on the Fraser River, Johnson Straits, Rivers Inlet, and up the coast to Camano Sound.
To fuel a day of exploring, visitors can whet their appetites with a curated multicultural selection of more than 15 food trucks including, new this year, Mango Yummy, Golden Bannock, and Rolled West Coast ice cream. Those packing their own fare can pull up to one of the picnic tables to enjoy the music as they munch.
Richmond’s 22nd Annual Richmond Maritime Festival coincides with the FreshCo Richmond Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday Aug. 23, at Steveston’s Imperial Landing, making the village the hub for visitors to enjoy water activities all weekend
For more details on getting to Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site and the festival program schedule, visit richmondmaritimefestival.ca.