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 KongEconomic 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nice summary!