GARRISON – Now that the state has imposed a ban on all fishing of shad in the Hudson River, the annual Shad Festival sponsored by the Riverkeeper organization in May is going to become the “Shad-less Festival.”

The show will go on at Boscobel, but without cooked Hudson River shad served as it has been for years and years. The shad festival in Garrison is some 20 years old.

Riverkeeper patrol boat operator John Lipscomb said the festival will go on.

 “The shad fests of the past celebrated the run of shad, the return, but also celebrated the harvest,” he said. “This year will be the first year since humans returned to the Hudson Valley after the last Ice Age that the shad come and there’s no harvest.”

There will still be the festival on May 15 with other food, music and other activities and entertainment.