DENVER, Colorado — After two years of cancellations, the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival will resume this year on July 23 and 24.
The annual event was started in 2001 by the nonprofit Colorado Dragon Boat. More than 40 teams will be racing this weekend.
Dragon boat racing originated about 2,000 years ago as a tradition in Chinese culture.
"Dragon boating is so closely tied to the Asian culture, and I personally am super, super proud of where we come from and our background. And my family has been going to the dragon boat festival since we moved here to Colorado, so dragon boating has just always been a part of my life growing up," said Jade Keomanivong, who will be competing this weekend.
In 2020, the event was canceled due to COVID. In 2021, the event was canceled due to health concerns with COVID as well as blue-green algae in the lake. This year, festival organizers unexpectedly hit another obstacle: one of the dragon boats was hit by lightning.
"Unfortunately about three weeks ago, we did have an incident where one of our dragon boats was severely damaged. There was a lightning strike. Everybody was completely fine. No one was on the boat, but it did damage the end of the boat."
The team at Colorado Dragon Boat quickly scrambled to find two new boats, which volunteers transported from Iowa to have in time for the festival. The quick thinking means the festival will be able to continue as planned.
Those involved in the festival are looking forward to being able to race as planned on the boats.
"They’re itching to paddle this weekend. We haven’t had this festival in a few years, right, so our team and many others are just ready to go," said Jeff Dang, who is a captain of CODA, the Colorado Dragon Boat Alliance.
The cost to the nonprofit was about $10,000 to acquire the boats so last minute. In order to help offset the cost, Colorado Dragon Boat is working to fundraise. If you would like to donate, click here.
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