Each year for the last two decades, dragons have thundered through the waters of Sloan’s Lake in a fulmination of flying color. This year, onlookers at the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, coming July 22 and 23, will meet some new ones.
Acquiring a new fleet of boats for each 20-person racing team to use has been the ultimate goal since the festival’s inaugural run in 2001, organizers said. This year, that goal was met by using about $120,000 in donations saved from festivals and fundraisers from the 23 years prior.
“Year after year, we were able to save little by little,” said Sara Moore, executive director of Colorado Dragon Boat. “Finally, in our 23rd year of existence, we were able to do it through a lot of wonderful help from past and present.”
Colorado Dragon Boat is the non-profit organization that puts on the weekend-long festivities, which last year attracted an estimated 170,000 visitors to Sloan’s Lake Park. The two-day blowout that includes three performance stages and dozens of market and food vendors is run only by Moore, one other staff member and an army of volunteers — many of whom have been coming back to the festival for decades to celebrate Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island heritage in Denver.
“It’s such a safe and warm space for people to come and celebrate, and it has been for 23 years,” Moore said. “By now, it’s almost a family tradition for a lot of people to come out and to know that this is a space where they are safe to celebrate their culture and traditions and learn about different ones.”
Colorado Dragon Boat has firmly established Dragon Boat racing as a Denver tradition. Outside the Mile High City, it’s a highly popular, millennia-old celebration. Races happen all over the world, most commonly in Taiwanese-style boats with 18 paddlers, one drummer and one flag catcher. In more competitive races, 20 paddlers operate slimmer, Hong Kong-style BuK boats like the ones to be unveiled at the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival this summer.
“It’s such a beautiful sport to watch, with the beautiful dragon heads and dragon tails – it’s epic. It’s like these dragons are flying across the water,” Moore said. “The story behind dragon boating is so iconic and so important in Asian cultures.”
Dragon Boat racing originated in China, but the Colorado festival is meant to represent and celebrate all of the 50-plus identities under the AANHPI umbrella, which make up just over 4% of Denver’s population, according to 2022 census data. That occurs through a vast array of local food vendors, a stacked weekend of all-day music, dance and martial arts performances from local artists across three stages, and two Taste of Asia food courts with more than 30 vendors.
“Everybody has their own culture and differences and things to share,” Moore said. “One of the things that make us unique, not only to Colorado but the Rocky Mountain region, is the fact that because we are a smaller community and a smaller group, we have the ability to come together as one to celebrate all.”
There is no parking on-site for the festival, so it’s recommended that visitors self-pay to park at the Auraria campus and use the free, festival-provided parking shuttles to get to Sloan’s Lake. The shuttle will run every 20-30 minutes from Auraria’s Cherry and Elm Lots and Fifth Street Garage to Sloan’s Lake Park.
