The Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival is a yearly event that attracts 5500 paddlers and over 70,000 spectators in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Since its inception in 1993, thousands of participants have gathered at Mooney's Bay Park on Riverside Drive in Ottawa to race. Admission to the festival is free to spectators.
In 1998 the "Pledge Challenge" was added as a charitable component. The Ottawa Dragon Boat Foundation was founded in 2004 to help efforts with fundraising for local charities. To date the Challenge has raised over $2.43 million.
The 2012 edition of the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival will take place June 22–24, 2012. The Ottawa Dragon Boat Foundation's fundraising goal was to raise $350,000 for local charities.
The event is held in Mooney's Bay, where the Rideau River and Rideau Canal split. Many of the Ottawa-based boats train at Mooney's Bay out of the Rideau Canoe Club.
Read more about Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival: Breast Cancer Survivor Teams, Opening Ceremony, Onsite Entertainment, Children's Area, Vendors, Artisans, Concessionaires, and Exhibitors, Closing Ceremony
Famous quotes containing the words dragon, boat and/or festival:
“One dragon may breed nine different offspring.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Casting me adrift, 3500 miles from a port of call. You’re sending me to my doom, eh? Well, you’re wrong, Christian! I’ll take this boat as she floats to England if I must. I’ll live to see you—all of you—hanging from the highest yardarms in the British fleet.”
—Talbot Jennings (1896–1985)
“Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme, I have tried; I can find no rhyme to “lady” but “baby”Man innocent rhyme; for “scorn,” “horn”Ma hard rhyme; for “school,” “fool”Ma babbling rhyme; very ominous endings. No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)