About The Virginia Fly Fishing Festival

From our humble beginnings in the spring of 1999, the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival has grown to the largest event of its kind in the Old Dominion. We routinely draw attendees and vendors from as far away as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Tennessee. We even have lodge owners and guides who come from as far away as Alaska to be a part of the show.

This one-of-a-kind event builds relationships between anglers, pro-environment groups, and small businesses, all with the goal of promoting conservation in the state. The festival was originally funded in its entirety by Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc., an organization committed to supporting business growth in the area of Waynesboro. Since the South River is one of the only urban trout fisheries in the state, the thought of a fly fishing festival held on its banks made perfectly good sense. Thus the VFFF was born to draw attention to the needs of the South River and to introduce sportsmen to all that Waynesboro and its environs had to offer them.

After funding the event for two years entirely on its own, Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc. invited other businesses to join them in sponsoring the event in the hope that the festival would in time become self-sustaining. Today our generous sponsors include SunTrust Bank, Orvis, Subaru, Dominion, St. Croix, and Virginia Sportsman magazine. In addition, the City of Waynesboro and the Augusta County have contributed to the success of the event.

Fully half of the festival’s net profits go directly into stream repair work on the South River, a waterway that has been damaged by industrial pollution in times past. The remainder of net profits are used to promote the following year’s festival. As far as we know, the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival is the only event of its kind in the country. Last year the festival received the prestigious Joe Penfold Award from the Mason-Dixon Outdoor Writers Association, given to organizations focused on conservation issues at the grassroots level.

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