To celebrate Chinese New Year, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices has launched the fifth East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival. The 2010 Festival takes place on Sunday 9th May at Nicholas Everitt Park, Oulton Broad in Lowestoft and is one of the largest and most eagerly anticipated corporate team events in the region. Up to 50 crews representing companies, organisations, clubs and groups of friends from all over East Anglia are expected to battle it out over the 200m race course watched by several thousand spectators.

Dragon boat racing has an ancient Chinese history and the Festival is a re-enactment of a tragic event that took place more than 2,000 years ago in the kingdom of Chu. Legend has it that falsely accused of treason and exiled by jealous rivals in the government, despairing warrior poet, Qu Yuan, threw himself into the Mi Lo River. Local fishermen rowed out to save the drowning poet and tried to rescue him from vicious fish by beating the water with their paddles. But their attempts failed and every year in Hong Kong a Tuen Ng (Dragon Boat) Festival is held as a mark of respect for the fishermen’s frantic efforts and to commemorate the tragic death of Qu Yuan. The dragon boat’s fierce looking dragon’s heads were added later to ward off evil spirits and in Hong Kong special dumplings are eaten to represent the dumplings that were thrown in to the river to stop the fish eating the mighty Qu’s body.

According to the Chinese calendar, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, symbolising great courage, stealth and fearlessness, coincidentally the perfect attributes for dragon boat team members! No previous experience is required to take part in the East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival, just plenty of team spirit so why not take up the challenge? The dragon boats and all racing equipment are provided and each crew is guaranteed a minimum of three races. The Festival offers a full day of fun on land as well as water with plenty of activities on the bankside to entertain teams and spectators between races. The event is supported by BBC Suffolk, Waveney District Council and Lowestoft Journal.

Carl Brooks, Corporate Fundraiser at East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH), said: “Relying as we do on voluntary public support for the majority of our income of around £5.8 million a year, we are delighted to once again be the official charity for the Dragon Boat Festival. The money raised through the generosity of the teams taking part will go towards the one-to-one nursing care and support that is so vital to life-threatened local children and their families”. The top fundraisers for EACH will win the charity trophy plus a full day of spa, gym use and lunch kindly donated by the Marriott Sprowston Manor in Norwich.
Carol Lester, director of Festival organisers, Gable Events, adds; “The Festival is a great chance for companies and organisations to try something completely different, promote themselves to a large local audience, network with local companies and potential clients and raise money for EACH. It is also a fantastic team building opportunity – what better way to get to know what makes your colleagues and competitors tick! We expect the Festival to be as popular as ever this time around so we recommend teams get their entries in early to guarantee a place”.