The Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival or Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival takes place every June on the waters and shoreside of False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is North America's largest and most competitive dragon boat festival with over 200 crews competing from around the world, with roots stemming from Expo 86. The Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival is run by the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society (commonly Dragon Boat BC).
The Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival is a legacy of Expo 86, where Vancouver's Chinese-Canadian community introduced the traditional annual Chinese Duanwu Festival (summer solstice) to Canada as a cultural outreach program to share Chinese culture with the city's multi-cultural population. The dragon boat festival was created to promote sport and Chinese culture, and a meeting place for Vancouver's culturally diverse population to build intercultural harmony and understanding.
Visitors experience a variety of ethnically themed food, cultural entertainment, fine arts and children's programming reflecting Vancouver's cultural diversity, and some of the world's most competitive dragon boat races. The festival has grown to become one of Vancouver's largest family summer events, attracting paddlers ranging in age from high school students to 'grand dragons' in their 80s, and visitors including families of all ages and backgrounds. The festival celebrates community, culture, and competition by connecting visitors with dragon boat racing, cultural displays, and community organizations that support accessible activity and programs.
History
Volunteers made trips to Hong Kong in 1984 to investigate how to import teak dragon boats. The City of Vancouver Centennial Commission endorsed the plan for an inaugural festival as part of the official civic anniversary festivities. The local committee contacted the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), and with the financial assistance of businesses connected to Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific Airways, Sing Tao and Empire Stevedoring), brought six teak wooden dragon boats built in Hong Kong to Vancouver for Expo 86. These boats were on display at the Marine Plaza Zone when they were not being used for practices, competitions or ceremonial purposes in support of the Hong Kong Pavilion.
In 1986, the Chinese Cultural Centre of Vancouver organized and hosted the first authentic dragon boat festival in North America, and invited prominent community leaders to be patrons. This committee maintained the fleet of 9 teak dragon boats after 3 more were purchased, under the leadership of Dr. Wallace Chung and Dr. S. Wah Leung. Part of this group of founding volunteers includes David See-Chai Lam and Milton K. Wong, who would later reorganize the Vancouver Festival as the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival in 1988. Mason Hung, senior IDBF vice-president and Product Development Manager with the HKTB, came to Vancouver as a consultant. The first races adapted the Hong Kong festival's racing rules for use on False Creek, which, like Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour course, is subject to tidal currents. These volunteers organized instruction and training for novices who had never paddled before out of the False Creek Community Centre, home of the recently started False Creek Racing Canoe Club. The popularity of dragon boat racing began to grow quickly- initially there were around 30 teams competing, but this number continued to grow each year to over 100 by the early 1990s.
In 1998, an Asia-Pacific food fair along with performances and entertainment at the Plaza of Nations inspired organizers to expand the dragon boat festival to include a cultural component like in Hong Kong. In 1989, the festival invited and hosted international dragon boat teams to compete, startingwith a women's team from Australia and a men's team from Great Britain. Over the next few years, teams flew over from Indonesia, Japan, England, Germany and Australia to compete against teams from Canada and the USA. In recent years, international teams have returned to Vancouver as the festival has grown, with teams participating from around the world, including from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the US, Great Britain, Australia, Singapore, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and many other countries from around the world.
In 1996, 10 years after Vancouver's first race, the 1st IDBF Club Crew World Championships was convened on False Creek during the festival. The 1996 Club Crew World Championships marked the first time that a state-sponsored dragon boat team from China competed outside Asia. Crews competing also flew in from Australia, New Zealand, Germany and England.
In 2008, the festival was rebranded from the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival to the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. In 2012, the Society received 8 BuK dragon boats as a donation from Concord Pacific's Terry Hui in honour of Milton Wong, expanding the fleet to 18 BuK dragon boats, and allowing the festival to be raced entirely in BuK boats. In 2016, after many years of support from Rio Tinto Alcan, founding sponsor Concord Pacific became the new title partner of the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival. Concord Pacific also donated $1 million to build a new community boathouse for community paddling operations to support the dragon boat festival and its year round paddling club. The Creekside Paddling Centre houses the festival's equipment and boats year round for use. The festival also expanded back to Concord Pacific Place and Creekside Park in 2016 after being run in the Olympic Village Plaza and Creekside Community Centre.
Race Course and Festival Site
The initial races for Expo 86 were held on the water just to the west of the Cambie Street Bridge. The original race course of 6 lanes were 640 m in length, the same distance as in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui harbour. The number of lanes increased to 9 as the number of boats available for racing increased, and as registered teams grew from 18 in 1986, to 100 in the 1990s, to over 150 in the 2000s, to 200+ today. The distance also was changed to 500 m, keeping with the development of international racing standards. The race course is subject to tidal streams or currents. The water can be flowing in the same direction boats race (similar effect to a tail wind: shorter time required to go from the start line to the finish line), the opposite direction (similar effect to a head wind: longer time required to go from start to finish), or there is no current during slack tide.
The land portion of the festival has also varied over the last 2 dozen years. Historic venues include the Plaza of Nations on the north shore, Creekside Park on the east shore and Creekside Community Recreation Centre on the south shore. The current Festival site runs along the False Creek seawall starting from Concord Pacific Place on the North shore, to Creekside Park on the East shore, to the Creekside Paddling Centre on the South shore.
Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival in Vancouver
Festival Races
The festival's main divisions are in Premier Mixed and Premier Women. These two divisions each feature a sequence of 500 m races, with the fastest teams then racing in a 2,000 m turns race, where up to 18 boats race in a time trial. Up to 42 Junior Mixed teams compete in a separate division, featuring a sequence of 500 m heats, semi finals, and finals. Other divisions include a Premier Open division. Specialty races include the International Cup (visiting teams face off against Canadian teams in a sequence of races leading up to a 200 m knockout final), the Barrier Free Canada Cup (100 m knockout sprint raising money for seven charities), Breast Cancer Championship, U24 Cup, Grand Dragon's Cup, and Cancer Survivor race.
Dragon Zone Paddling Club
The festival's producers, the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society also operates a series of races and runs Dragon Zone Paddling Club out of Creekside Paddling Centre and Creekside Community Centre. Dragon Zone is a year-round paddling facility on False Creek that offers dragon boat, flatwater kayak and canoe, and outrigger programs for people of all ages, abilities, and competitive levels out of a fully accessible facility. The Society also runs the Dragon Zone Youth Regatta (race for youth in early May), the Dragon Zone Spring Sprint (race in 10 person dragon boats in early May), the Dragon Zone 500 M Regatta (BC's second largest race with over 100 teams in early June), and the Steveston Dragon Boat Festival (last race in the Vancouver dragon boat race calendar in late August).
Over 50 teams regularly train out of Dragon Zone year round, including recreational or competitive teams. The club also offers introduction programs for dragon boat, youth summer flatwater paddling camps, one day programs, community paddling days, and other cultural and paddling programs in partnership with other community organizations.
A dragon boat is a human-powered watercraft originating from the Pearl River Delta region of China's southern Guangdong Province. These were made of teak, but in other parts of China different kinds of wood are used. It is one of a family of traditional paddled long boats found throughout Asia, Africa, the Pacific islands, and Puerto Rico. The sport of dragon boat racing has its roots in an ancient folk ritual of contending villagers, which dates back 2000 years throughout southern China, and even further to the original games of Olympia in ancient Greece. Both dragon boat racing and the ancient Olympiad included aspects of religious observances and community celebrations, along with competitions.
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar. The holiday commemorates Qu Yuan who was the beloved prime minister of the southern Chinese state of Chu during the Warring States Period, about 600 B.C. to 200 B.C., and is celebrated by holding dragon boat races and eating sticky rice dumplings called zongzi, which were southern Chinese traditions. Dragon Boat Festival integrates praying for good luck and taking respite from the summer heat.
The Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival is an annual festival of dragon boat races in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Begun in 1994, the festival attracts 5,500 paddlers, 200 teams and over 75,000 spectators from all around the world. It is one of the largest dragon boat festivals in North America. The event is held in Mooney's Bay, where the Rideau River and Rideau Canal split. Mooney's Bay is where many of the Ottawa-based teams train, using the Rideau Canoe Club facilities. The festival was most recently held in 2019. The 2020 and 2021 festivals were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022 saw the return of the festival but the number of participants was less than pre pandemic years.
False Creek is a short narrow inlet in the heart of Vancouver, separating the Downtown and West End neighbourhoods from the rest of the city. It is one of the four main bodies of water bordering Vancouver, along with English Bay, Burrard Inlet, and the Fraser River. Granville Island is located within the inlet.
Yaletown is an area of Downtown Vancouver, Canada, bordered by False Creek and Robson and Homer Streets. Formerly a heavy industrial area dominated by warehouses and rail yards, since the 1986 World's Fair it has been transformed into one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in the city.
The Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival (TIDBRF), is an annual dragon boat race and cultural event, first held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1989. It will be its 37th year in a row in 2024. It developed from the Toronto Chinese Business Association held in Toronto, Ontario. An associated festival highlights Asian and other cultures in Toronto. It has been acknowledged as a prominent cultural occasion in Toronto, fostering heritage and arts.
The International Dragon Boat Federation is the international governing body for the sport of dragon boat racing. IDBF was founded in Hong Kong on June 24, 1991 by Australia, China, Taiwan, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, and the United States. IDBF currently has 75 member countries or territories and is supported by five continental federations.
The history of Vancouver, British Columbia, is one that extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants arriving in the area following the Last Glacial Period. With its location on the western coast of Canada near the mouth of the Fraser River and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia, Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet, and their tributaries, Vancouver has – for thousands of years – been a place of meeting, trade, and settlement.
A war canoe is a watercraft of the canoe type designed and outfitted for warfare, and which is found in various forms in many world cultures. In modern times, such designs have become adapted as a sport, and "war canoe" can mean a type of flatwater racing canoe.
The Plaza of Nations was an entertainment complex located on the northeast shore of False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The British Dragon Boat Racing Association (BDA) is the UK governing body for dragon boat racing as a sport and recreation, recognised by the UK Sports Council and a member of the Sport Alliance, Water Recreation Division.
The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communication: World in Motion – World in Touch", coincided with Vancouver's centennial and was held on the north shore of False Creek.
Aberdeen is an area on southwest Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Southern District. While the name "Aberdeen" could be taken in a broad sense to encompass the areas of Aberdeen (town), Wong Chuk Hang, Ap Lei Chau, Tin Wan, Wah Kwai Estate and Wah Fu Estate, it is more often used to refer to the town only. According to the population census conducted in 2011, the total population of the Aberdeen area is approximately 80,000.
Aberdeen floating village is located at the Aberdeen Harbour in the Southern District of Hong Kong. The harbour is known to contain 600 junks and is home to 6,000 people.
Concord Pacific Place is "Canada's biggest master-planned urban community" and is projected to be North America's largest in terms of occupants and area when completed. It is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the north shore of False Creek. The area was formerly the rail yards of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was redeveloped into the main site of the 1986 World Exposition.
Rubicon Riders Dragon Boat Racing Team (MDBRC) is based in Montreal on the Olympic Basin located in Parc Jean-Drapeau. The RR was founded in 2011 as a competitive U23 team, the first its kind in Quebec. The boat is composed with a mixture of paddlers from Raging Beast (16), Autoboat Beast(3), Kamikaze(1), Boat Rockers (2) and Montreal Mix(2).
Breast cancer survivors' dragon boating is an international movement inspired by the research of Canadian sports medicine specialist Don McKenzie. Survivors of breast cancer come together to paddle dragon boats to the benefit of their physical health and social wellbeing. It is supported internationally by the International Breast Cancer Paddlers' Commission (IBCPC), an Associate Member of the International Dragon Boat Federation.
Chinese Canadians are a sizable part of the population in Greater Vancouver, especially in the Chinese communities in the city of Vancouver and the adjoining suburban city of Richmond. The legacy of Chinese immigration is prevalent throughout the Vancouver area.
There are over 100,000 Australians in Hong Kong, with most being Chinese Australians. Many Hong Kong Australians hold dual citizenship of Australia and Hong Kong. Although, some are non-Chinese Asian or White Hong Kong people. Australian business people are based in the city, which is an important financial centre and is also seen as a gateway to the China market.
Berkeley Racing Canoe Center (BRCC) is the umbrella organization for several dragon boat teams in Berkeley, California. BRCC is located in the Berkeley Marina at Dock M, and teams primarily practice within the protection of the 65-acre yacht harbor. Three main teams are currently affiliated with BRCC: DragonMax, Cal Dragon, and East Bay Rough Riders. BRCC teams compete at local, national, and international dragon boat races, including the International Dragon Boat Federation Club Crew World Championships in Ravenna, Italy (2014), Adelaide, Australia (2016), and Szeged, Hungary (2018). BRCC teams also conduct many short-duration dragon boat events for local community groups. BRCC is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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