Dragon Boat Fest has new boats

BY YALDAZ SADAKOVA

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 7:12 PM EDT

The 18th annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York, a major free event in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, is going to have two new boats in the race.

The new dragon-shaped narrow boats were blessed at a ceremony in Central Park, at East 72nd Street, on Thursday, July 17, when the festival was introduced by Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, who was joined by Buddhist monks performing martial arts and costumed Chinese musicians.

The event itself is going to take place on August 2 and August 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. During these two days, 150 competing teams will row their boats in sync in the waters of Meadow Lake.

On land, there will be cultural events - martial arts performed by Shaolin monks, Mexican dance and Chinese music, among other things. “It’s a really multicultural stage, stuff that appeals to families,” said David Archer, marketing director for the festival.

On Sunday noon, the famous dumpling eating contest will take place.

The celebration is sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, a permanent representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is China’s oldest holiday.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
Paddling along the surface of Central Park’s Bethesda Lake in one of the new boats are: Henry Wan, chair of the festival, drumming; to the right of him - Adrian Benepe, Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner; behind him - Terry Tang, CEO TMI Food Group. On the other side of the boat are paddlers from the HSBC bank’s Dragon Boat team.