America's River Roots Festival to Host Nine Riverboats in Cincinnati Next Year

Organizers of the upcoming America’s River Roots, a big festival celebrating Greater Cincinnati’s river culture and heritage, are offering some new details about the event coming in 2025.

America’s River Roots will be a celebration of inland river culture to kick off the U.S.’s 250th birthday, bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors to the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Newport and Covington from Oct. 8-12, 2025. The Ohio River has played a vital role not just in Cincinnati’s history, but the history of the U.S. — from providing energy and industry to being a beacon of hope to those seeking freedom — and River Roots aims to showcase the multicultural art, history, music and cuisine that has come from the river connecting people to the region.

At BB Riverboat Cruises in Newport Monday, River Roots organizers and Cincinnati and Newport’s mayors gathered for a press conference to share the names of the riverboats joining Cincinnati’s Belle of Cincinnati and River Queen on the Ohio River in October:

Steamboat NATCHEZ from New Orleans
Belle of Louisville from Louisville
Mary M. Miller from Louisville
Celebration Belle from Moline, Illinois
Belle of Memphis from Memphis
Three Rivers Queen from Pittsburgh
Anson & Betsey Northrup from Minneapolis/St. Paul

With all these boats heading to the Queen City, that means there will be around 200 cruise experiences available across the nine ships. Organizers say there will be brunch, lunch, dinner and late-night cruises, as well as the Riverboat Race cruises, Parade cruises and sight-seeing cruises. Tickets are on sale now here and start at $40 a person.

“We are looking forward to everybody coming to enjoy the festival, the river. It is going to be a spectacle, maybe, you’ve never seen before, so come on down and enjoy it,” said Capt. Alan Bernstein, the owner of BB Riverboat Cruises.

During the press conference, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval and Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli Jr. also invited the mayors of each city represented by the visiting riverboats to visit the Queen City for the festival. The mayors were also invited to participate in the River Expo Pavilion and identify their best musicians to perform one of nine stages.

Pureval and Guidugli also issued a friendly challenge to the visiting mayors: Pureval invited Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg to join him for the riverboat race between the Belle of Cincinnati and the Belle of Louisville. And Guidugli is challenging Memphis Mayor Paul Young in a race between the River Queen and the Belle of Memphis.

Covington Mayor Joseph Meyer will also be taking part in the friendly rivalries, challenging Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter to join him for a race between the River Queen, Three Rivers Queen and the Anson & Betsey Northrup.

“It is such an exciting time here in Cincinnati. Our region, not just our city, but our region, is on a roll,” Pureval said during the press conference. “Because of our collaboration with both sides of the river, we have been so successful in making our region, not just a national, but an international destination. … There is a reason the eyes of the world are on our region, and that’s because of this incredible collaboration, this incredible belief that we deserve more here in Cincinnati. We are not just happy to be on the national stage; we firmly belong there, and with River Roots, the first celebration in our country of the 250th birthday, we are going all out.”

More River Roots programming will be announced as the event gets closer, but attendees can expect plenty of live music, educational programs, multicultural food offerings, bourbon, craft beer and artisan vendors. Read more about the festival here.

America’s River Roots has also been endorsed as an official event of the Ohio 250 and Kentucky 250 Commissions to celebrate America’s 250th in 2026.