Annual dragon boat festival bigger and better

By Lethbridge Herald on June 26, 2023.

Paddlers get set for the call at the start line during the ATB Financial Lethbridge Rotary Dragon Boat Festival over the weekend. Herald photo by Justin Seward

Justin Seward – LETHBRIDGE HERALD

The ATB Financial Lethbridge Rotary Dragon Boat Festival had a very festive feel over the weekend at Henderson Lake Park.

The festival saw an increase in teams from a year ago.

“There’s just over 60,” said  Kimberlee Davis, dragon boat festival planning committee chair.

“The festival has grown significantly. Last year we had in the 40s, so it’s a bigger festival this year.”

A combination of being a well-known festival, the ability to host well and able to put on a party and festival for the teams are some reasons that Davis listed in terms of growth for the festival.

“We’re just known as a really, really great festival to attend,” said Davis.

Organizers wanted people to feel excited and supported.

“And one of the best things about dragon boats is that team feeling,” Davis.

“So we want people really to enjoy each other and their teams, and feel safe and happy during the entire weekend.”

As for the atmosphere, “awesome” came to mind for Davis.

“Yeah we could really feel it starting this morning,” she said.

“People were commenting on how fun it felt as the teams started to come in and then towards the afternoon we started to get a lot of the community coming in, taking in the festival, watching the races and it just really fills up, and you can tell it has a real festival atmosphere and a real community event draw.”

The organizers have find tuned how the festival has ran over the 21 years in existence.

“So it is a pretty well run machine at this point,” she said.

“That being said, every year we make little tweaks to make it bigger and better and as you can see, we have more teams this year, there’s more vendors this year, there’s more food trucks this year. So it does grow on a yearly basis and we do try every year to make an improvement and do move this forward. This year I would say the size of the festival alone really was this year’s big improvement,”

“We always look forward to it,” said Donna Burton of the local Abreast of ‘Bridge team.

“It’s just a great time, it’s fun, we talk, and laugh ,and meet new people and it’s great.”

Annette Cameron of the Calgary Flying Dragons and Dragon Ladies club has been coming to the festival for years.

“Our team is  kind of rebuilding after COVID,” said Cameron.

“So this is a great way to come out and be in balanced categories where you’re getting competition that pushes you, but you’re not blown out by a national team right next door to you in your next lane. So it’s just a great opportunity to see people you haven’t seen for a while and everybody kind of knows everybody in the dragon boat community.”