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Title: Three Festivals in one weekend? Post by: DBWTim on April 11, 2006, 10:05:36 AM Well, I just got word that Water's Edge will be organizing the Vernon Dragon Boat Festival and will be taking place July 21st-23rd. Personally I find it odd that they would pick the same weekend as the Richmond and Harrison races. For the paddlers, I guess it's good that the community has choices to which festival to attend. On the flip side, having three festivals happening on one weekend will definately dilute the competition.
From what I've heard so far, many of the Vancouver teams are "boycotting" the Richmond race as they felt that it was poorly run last year and have chosen to attend Harrison... but with Vernon opening up, they may elect to attend that race now. Too bad they couldn't run these festivals on different weekends and give teams a month of weekend racing. Title: Re: Three Festivals in one weekend? Post by: zoso on April 11, 2006, 12:29:31 PM Chaos,
This is the 2nd year that Vernon has held their DB festival at that same time of year, last year it was on July 22-24/05, and it is the organizers of the festival (Vernon Dragon Boat Race & Festival) that chooses the date for the festival not Water's Edge that manages the racing aspect of the festival. It has also been public knowedge that Water's Edge would be managing the races in Vernon for the past 6 weeks as well as Alcan's Regatta and Festival plus Calgary's races on Aug 11-13/06 and of course Kelowna's races on Sept 15-17/06. Title: Re: Three Festivals in one weekend? Post by: gunghaggis on April 11, 2006, 01:07:47 PM Let's see....
Mountain surrounded glacier fed lake, muddy Fraser River with unexpected currents, or Sunny Okanagan surrounded by wineries... I attended the Vernon Race last year in its inaugural year. There were a few problems in Vernon: There were the usual growing pains of disorganization associated with an inaugural event at a new site; The wind blew up Saturday morning with white caps - one drummer on a cancer survivor team fell into the water; When the wind died down - the sun got so hot you couldn't walk barefeet on the beach; Nobody had a real chance of beating Pacific Reach. But the Calgary Paddling Club did a good job of creating an inaugural race in Vernon. It was fun, and I made lots of new friends, and I was quickly helping out with the dock crew - racing on boats that needed a steers or a drummer. It was great fun - I will be back. I have e-mailed both groups in Calgary and Fraser Valley - and the dates were the only ones they could properly set up. Other races to consider Kent-Seattle is on July 15 Calgary Races are August 12/13 |