Dragon Boat Festival returns
Get in some cultural “participasian” before cheering on your favorite racers
It may be the Year of the Pig, but dragons will still dominate at the 19th annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival.
Held this year on July 27 and 28 at Sloan’s Lake Park, the free festival will feature workshops on Hawaiian kite-making and origami, host more than 100 performances including a Vietnamese fashion show and K-pop dancers, showcase nearly 40 vendors offering everything from henna tattoos to Asian-inspired Tshirts, and serve almost 20 food options from countries like China, Korea and India.
The centerpiece attraction remains the dragon boat races, a feat of strength, speed and synchronization. This year, the races feature seven teams sponsored by companies like Millercoors and Xfinity, and 28 teams from schools, clubs, businesses and other backgrounds.
The festival draws as many as 120,000 people each year and is supported by 400 volunteers, according to organizers. It is part of Dragon 5280, the umbrella nonprofit organization that encompasses the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, the Colorado Dragon Film Festival and the Emerging Leaders Program, a leadership group for Asian and Pacific
Islander young adults.
The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival also aims to promote Asian culture in Colorado and prides itself on encouraging audience members to interact with different cultures.
“We call this participasian,” the festival’s website states.
Sara Moore, Dragon 5280’s executive director, said though the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is pan-asian, a different Asian country is highlighted each year. The focus is on Vietnam this year, and the festival’s Gateway Village area will feature activities like a bun bo hue-eating contest, talks about the past and present of Vietnam and a photo booth where people can try on traditional Vietnamese garb.
Moore said there is no parking at Sloan’s Lake Park, but people can park at the Auraria Campus for $5 and take a free shuttle to the festival. The shuttle runs both days of the festival every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. She cautioned festival patrons from parking in surrounding neighborhoods to avoid being ticketed and towed.
She also advised wearing hats, sunscreen and drinking plenty of water since the Colorado Dragon Boat festival is “the hottest festival of the summer” in more ways than one.
Moore added that attendees shouldn’t enter Sloan’s Lake, as the water is treated the week before the festival and the chemicals can be harmful to skin.
For the uninitiated, dragon boats are essentially long, open wooden boats with designs that make the vessel resemble a dragon. They’re powered by 10 paddlers on each side, a caller who keeps the paddlers on time and a steerer who keeps the boat on course. Paddles are four feet long, and most teams can finish a 500-meter race in about two minutes.
Moore said the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival will have two divisions: a flag-catching style, which uses boats with the iconic dragon heads and tails, and in which someone sits on top on the dragon head to reach out and grab a flag; and a Hong Kongstyle division, which will be more competitive and will use sleeker boats without dragons heads and tails. Both divisions will award first, second and third places, with winning teams receiving medals and dragon trophies.the festival’s website has a full racing schedule.
Dragon boat races commemorate Qu Yuan, a respected historical figure from ancient China, according to the International Dragon Boat Federation. As the story goes, 2000 years ago, Qu Yuan was falsely accused of treason by his political rivals and was banished from the country. In despair, he threw himself into the Mi Lo River and drowned. Fisherman raced their boats to recover his body before it could be devoured by fish, beating drums and throwing rice dumplings into the river to distract them.
Additionally, dragon boats are thought to ward off evil water spirits. This is likely because the races are typically held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (which usually falls in June), and the combination of these fifth lunar numbers is believed to be a bad omen.