Epic Return of Calgary Dragon Boat Festival!!! Thank You!!!

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Paddles UP!!!

We had a tremendous turnout of the return of the 2022 Calgary Dragon Boat Festival presented by Sinopec Canada (Title Sponsor) last weekend at North Glenmore Park, August 5-7, 2022! It was heartwarming to see the big smiles, camaraderie, inclusiveness, multiculturalism, and athleticism on display by participants and hoards of spectators who showed up in support.

Photo Credit: Kris Jun

Between the Paddler’s Kickoff/Sneak-a-peek on Friday evening through to a full festival schedule all weekend, we were treated to a bevy of live music, dance performances by GlobalFest groups on our main stage, our largest Dragon Marketplace to date with a diverse 40 vendors, 13 scrumptious Food Trucks, family friendly Marda Loop Brewing Co. Beer Garden, and fun games/mascots/face painting for the little ones in the Kids Play Zone. We brought back the 2000 year old Chinese time honoured tradition of dragon boat racing to the Glenmore Reservoir, introducing 200m races with 500m afternoon qualifiers, and new Open and 2K Guts and Glory challenges to keep things fun. Overall, we had a great showing of teamwork from our dragon boat community, 35 teams competed in a variety of divisions (Mixed, Women’s, Open, Breast Cancer Survivor, Charity, Corporate), including out of town teams from Montana, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.

The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to catching up and sharing photos/videos with you in coming weeks as they trickle in.

Photo Credits: Kris Jun, Joyce Tai

A huge thank you to all our Sponsors, VIP guests, Volunteers, out of town teams from Montana, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, local club teams, Marketplace Vendors, CDBS Board of Directors and Community partners who all made this multi-day event a huge success.

A shout out to our 2022 Sponsors & Partners:

  • Sinopec Canada, Title Sponsor
  • PetroChina Canada, Gold Sponsor
  • Trico Homes, Bronze & Volunteer T-Shirt Sponsor
  • Grey Eagle Resort & Casino, Bronze Sponsor
  • Deerfoot Inn & Casino, Accommodations & Shuttle Bus Transportation
  • Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO), Government Supporter
  • NEO Financial, Community Partner
  • Marda Loop Brewery, Beer Garden Sponsor
  • SAIT, Community Partner
  • Tourism Calgary, Hospitality Partner
  • City of Calgary, Government Supporter
  • Calgary Chinatown
  • Central Grand Restaurant, VIP & Volunteer Hospitality Sponsor
  • Calgary Parks Foundation, Amateur Sport Grant
  • Mount Royal University, Festival Parking Partner
  • GlobalFest, Multi-Cultural Partner
  • Sistership Association of Calgary, Special Events
  • Canada China Commercial Association (CCCA), Special Events
  • Sing Tao Newspaper, Media Partner
  • Fairchild Radio Calgary FM94.7, Media Partner
  • Trend Weekly, Media Partner

Eye Dotting Ceremony

The Dotting Of The Eye Ceremony is an important blessing to “Awaken the Dragon” with red paint dotting the eye of the dragon heads, out of respect for the dragon to protect and garner good luck before the races commence. A sacrificial offering of rice dumplings and burning of incense is made, as with the bowing and the sprinkling of water over the head of the dragon to foster speed and luck to the Spirits of the Water. This year, the ceremony was conducted by the Calgary Tai Chi and Martial Arts College on Saturday morning to open the races and involved various VIP members and CDBS directors.

Video Credit: Shaw Multicultural Channel 4, produced by Jim Reis

Opening Ceremonies


Our Opening Ceremonies included a Land Acknowledgement (Marilyn North Peigan), Official Welcome Remarks , followed by the ever popular Chinese Lion Dance by World Pak Mei Hup Ging Do . We wish to thank the following for coming out to support our event: MP’s Greg McLean and MP Jasraj Hallan, MLA’s Whitney Issik, Brian Jean, Rebecca Schulz, Prasad Panda, Josephine Pon, Jason Luan, Councillors Sean Chu, Dan McLean, Terry Wong.

Chinese Lion Dance by World Pak Mei Hup Ging Do
Our Co-Chairs, Keri Rak and Danny Ng

Breast Cancer Race and Pink Flower Ceremony

One of the touching traditions is witnessing the Breast Cancer Race and Pink Flower Ceremony by the participating breast cancer survivor teams and Sistership Dragon Boat Association. It’s a special ceremony to honour those we’ve lost to breast cancer, celebrate the healing journey of survivors, and to promote breast cancer awareness.

Video Credit: Shaw Multicultural Channel 10, produced by Jim Reis

Sinopec Dragon Boat Charity Race

Every year, the board selects a local charity to support and promote awareness through the Sinopec Charity Cup. This year’s recipient we are proud to partner with is the Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary (AFCC), to further the mission of removing barriers, empowering our community through cultural reconnection, promote the programming, services and access to resources that address the social and economic realities of community members.

Sinopec Calgary Dragon Boat Race Results for 2022

Results to 2022 Races are HERE:

Survivor Race:Sistership Phoenix (1st)
Breast Friends Edmonton (2nd)
Silverling Montana (3rd)
Sistership Synergy (4th)
Energy CupTeam Phoenix – RED (1st)
Team Phoenix – BLUE (2nd)
Cenovus Fusion (3rd)
Guts and Glory 2KEDBRC-Mixed? (1st)
CDBC Crew Yahoo (2nd)
Dragnum DBC (3rd)
Sinopec Charity CupCCCA Business Team (1st)
Government & Community (2nd)
CDBS Volunteer Squad (3rd)
Men’s Open ChallengeEDBRC (1st)
Spartans/Waverunners/Rocksteady (2nd)
CDBC Bunch of Yahoos (3rd)
Corporate CupTeam Phoenix – RED (1st)
Woods Homes Wave Warriors (2nd)
Team Phoenix – BLUE (3rd)
Women’s C FinalBreast Friends Edmonton (1st)
Silver Lining Montana (2nd)
Sistership Synergy (3rd)
Hong Kong Cup (Women’s B Final)Team Miles (1st)
Wood’n Eye (2nd)
TBCC Tumornators (3rd)
Calgary Chinatown Cup (Women’s A Final)Devils in Disguise (1st)
Coulee Classic Dragon (2nd)
Law & Disorder (3rd)
Albert Wong Memorial Cup (Mixed A Final)EDBRC-Mixed? (1st)
CDBC Crew Yahoo (2nd)
Spartans (3rd)

Special mention to our Out of Town Teams who came from afar to support our festival. You really all brought your competitive spirit and made it feel like our extended dragon boat family.

Silver Lining Montana

Edmonton Dragon Boat Racing Club (EDBRC Mixed, Just Add Water, Ladies First, Wahine Kei Waka, Breast Friends Edmonton)

Coulee Cruisers, Coulee Classic Dragons and DASA Lethbridge from Lethbridge

Snap Dragons from Medicine Hat

IN THE NEWS, read all about it!!!

Calgary Journal

CityNews

LiveWire

Finally, a special thanks to the CDBS Organizing Committee & Volunteers

  • Danny Ng & Keri Rak, our hardworking Co-Chairs for coordinating all the subcommittees and liaising with our media, sponsors, VIPs and community at large.
  • Charlene Delisle (Delisle Marketing & Events Inc), our Event Coordinator extraordinaire who was instrumental in helping us navigate the planning logistics & setup/takedown
  • Glenn Petruic, our Secretary & Race Marshall
  • Bill Bateman, our Timing & Race Tower guru
  • Shane Martin, for expertise on contracts, boat repairs and logistics
  • Grace Ma, for coordinating the VIP & volunteer catered lunches
  • Karen Luk, for coordinating practices for all the teams all season and race grid
  • Jenn Kwong, our Registrar who kept all our team registrations organized and informed
  • Layton Sergeant, for coordinating the boat repairs and transport, coaching and steering
  • Conrad Buzogan, for coordinating the boat repairs and transport and steering
  • Ed Tam, for coordinating our Volunteers & Charity Cup
  • Thomas Cheuk, for coordinating our Volunteers
  • John Dong, for community outreach and sponsorship
  • Chris Lu, our Treasurer and helping with social media
  • Kelly Moore, our Race Director
  • Byron for being our Dockmaster
  • Joyce Tai, for Social media and marketing
  • Diversecities for Volunteers
  • YMCA for Volunteers
  • ECSSEN Career School for Volunteers
  • Tomorrow Youth for Volunteers

A BIG THANK YOU from our 2022 Festival Organizing Committee & Board of Directors

We are always looking for ways to improve and make our festival experience even better for next year. Please join us for our next TOWN HALL MEETING on August 24, 2022 for a Recap and Q&A. Remember, our paddling season is still not over as our club teams continue on with practices to prepare for the upcoming Penticton Festival.

Paddles Up! #paddlesupYYC #yycDragonBoatComeback

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Kathleen Bell

    Nice summary!

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