Right Around the River Blog

Thousands Attend the 2013 International Dragon Boat Festival

Post Date: 08-14-2013

Another year, another eventful International Dragon Boat Festival along our riverfront community at the banks of the James River! Over 2200 people (around 1500 spectators and 775 participants) are estimated to have attended this year's event, bringing with them good times, competitive spirits and loads of festival fun.

Organized by Sports Backers and Great White North, 31 Dragon Boat teams came from up and down the East Coast to compete in this year's race. Catch 22, hailing from New York City, was the top-level winner for the Mixed Grand A heat, while SnagAJob won Best Local team, an award presented by Rocketts Landing. Other local winning teams include the Organization of Chinese Americans Feilong, Foundation PartnerSHIP and HDL Lab Rats.

And though the rain came out briefly during the day, not a moment of fun was missed — either on land or the river!

“We had about an hour delay due to some bad weather, but that didn’t stop the participants or spectators from coming back out after the storm passed and enjoying a great day on the river,” explains Meghan Keogh, race director for Sports Backers.

Event-goers also enjoyed a variety of Chinese cultural performances on land, such as drumming by River City Taiko and Tibetan Dance by the Pacific Arts Group. And true to the Dragon Boat Race’s nature, a stellar after-party completed the event with live music by 80’s cover band The Hit List plus a variety of food and beer vendors.

Overall, we were thrilled to see so many people enjoy themselves at the 4th Annual International Dragon Boat Festival at Rocketts Landing. We’re already counting down the days until next year’s celebration!