Dragon Boat Fest has rich history

By Lethbridge Herald on June 20, 2025.

Joe Manio
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The annual Lethbridge Rotary Dragon Boat Festival has a rich history, and Race Director Karen Johnson spoke about it at the Southern Alberta Council of Public Affairs (SACPA) at the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization (LSCO) Thursday.

“The biggest changes are that we now have nationally-trained officials, nationally trained coaches,” says Johnson. “And our competitors range from extremely-competitive to extremely-recreational.”

The Lethbridge Rotary Dragon Boat Festival is an annual event initiated by Lethbridge Rotary Clubs that began in 2002 with 17 crews and has grown to well-over 60 teams Participants range in age from teenagers to seniors. The event is a community effort, organized by local Rotary clubs, and has become a prominent summer event in Lethbridge. In addition to the races, the festival also includes entertainment, vendors, and beer gardens.

“The Calgary Canoe and Kayak organization loaned the Abreast of ‘Bridge their very first boat,” says paddler Wendy Aitkens about the early days. “It was not a dragon boat; it was a ten-seater Voyager canoe, and canoes and dragon boats are paddled differently. There are more people in a dragon boat, but they lived with the idiosyncrasies of this Voyager canoe.It leaked.”

The festival has grown significantly, now drawing more than 60 teams from various locations, including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana, and featuring 1,600 participants. It’s recognized as the largest dragon boat festival in Alberta. 

The festival is a major fundraiser for Rotary projects in Lethbridge and includes races, entertainment, vendors, and a beer garden. 

Paddler Bev Muendel-Atherstone was in the first festival in 2002 in the Rotary Club boat, which had the distinction of being the first boat to tip over.

“When another boat that was very close to us was aimed straight for us, and we could see that we were going to collide,” she recalls. “At that moment, Ian Randall said, ‘paddles up.’ We all put our paddles up and at that moment, a wave came into our boat and sank us. And it’s the most incredible feeling…sinking. Feeling that your feet go out from under you and you slowly go into the water, and then the boat just flipped over.”

Muendel-Atherstone says Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services [LFES] were on hand to quickly fish the paddlers out of Henderson Lake 

The festival also has a solemn component, with the Rose Petal Ceremony honoring breast cancer victims, and is a significant fundraiser for Rotary’s community projects. 

“All the dragon boat teams come on to the peninsula over the bridge and they’re carrying a rose, where we have an anonymous donor who gives us those roses every year,’ says Aitkens. “And then after a few little short speeches, the song The Rose is sung or played, and people tear their rose apart and every pedal that goes into that water is then remembering  someone that they’ve lost to cancer.”

The festival has a strong connection to breast cancer, primarily through the Abreast of ‘Bridge Dragon Boat Club. This club, composed of breast cancer survivors, uses dragon boat racing as a form of exercise, social support, and community engagement. 

“Why do we host a festival? There’s all kinds of reasons,” says Karen Johnson. “But I just think it’s just such a great event, and it’s been done so well. And those of us that are sticking around forever and ever, and can never retire…it’s a passion. We just, we just love it.”