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After several years of cancellations due to conditions on the Potomac River, Brunswick's Potomac River Festival returns this weekend.

Though slight alterations have been made from its old format, including losing the river race, Brunswick recreation coordinator Jody Simmons hopes the event will be a success.

"In actuality, the river race would have been canceled because the river's too low," Simmons said. "I've only received two calls about [canceling the race]. We pretty much just moved the focus to the Potomac River awareness festival."

The event is scheduled for 12-4 p.m. Saturday at the Brunswick Family Campground. In addition to river activities, there will be several activities for children, such as a moon bounce and petting zoo, and land activities for those who do not want to get in the river.

Previously, the day featured races with kayaks, canoes and homemade boats, but conditions on the river had made it impossible to hold the events in the past few years. Simmons said the switch in format, centering the day around demonstrations and the river itself instead of the race will allow the city to hold the celebration regardless of river conditions, which was the root of the cancellations in the past few years.

"By bringing in River and Trail Outfitters [of Knoxville], we're bringing in some demos," she said. "We decided to beef up that side of it. In the past two or three years the entire event has been canceled [because of river conditions]."

Lee Baihly, the CEO of River and Trail Outfitters, a Knoxville-based store specializing in boating and water activities, said the company had been involved in the Brunswick race day celebrations for 20 years. He said the interest in the races had dwindled over the years, especially the homemade boat portion, and that the new format would increase interest in the day.

"We had a river race where people would build homemade boats and stuff," he said. "We got to where it was only four or five [participants]. We're trying to have a broader appeal [and] get more people in boats by our new format."

Baihly said his company will have tubes for use in the river, as well as canoes and kayaks for sale, and is bringing in several speakers to discuss the best places to go canoeing and kayaking. He said that while most people think of kayakers as practitioners of an extreme sport, most of their use is in more docile waters.

"In terms of kayaking, that's really heavy whitewater," he said of extreme rapids. "That's about 15 percent of the sport. 85 percent is the recreational type of kayaking, [with calmer waters]."

He said he envisions the day as a way to showcase how many great activities are available in the area for those who want to have fun on the river.

"We have a lot to do on the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers," Baihly said. "We just want people to know about them. It's a great resource...This is just more of an outreach, to get more people interested in river sports."

E-mail Tripp Laino at tlaino@gazette.net.

Potomac River Festival

-When: 12-4 p.m. Saturday

-Location: Brunswick Family Campground. Access to the campground is through the parking lot of the MARC Train Station at the end of South Maple Avenue. The campground is about three-quarters of a mile down the C&O Canal tow path.

-For information: Lee Baihly from River & Trail Outfitters, 301-988-5712 or Lee@rivertrail.com; or Jody Simmons from the City of Brunswick Department of Recreation at 301-834-7500 ext. 3 or recreation@

brunswickmd.gov.