To celebrate Chinese New Year, East Coast Hospice has joined with Gable Events to launch the 10th East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival! 

The 2016 Festival, supported by the Lowestoft Journal, takes place on Sunday 22nd May at Nicholas Everitt Park, Oulton Broad and is one of the largest and most eagerly anticipated team events in the region.

Up to 50 crews representing companies, organisations, clubs and groups of friends from Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and throughout East Anglia are expected to battle it out over the 200m race course. They will all be seeking to knock Netmatters off their pedestal as reigning champions whilst also adding vital funds to the East Coast Hospice appeal.

According to the Chinese calendar, 2016 is the Year of the Monkey. The monkey is an important animal in Chinese culture and people born in the year of the monkey are said to be intelligent, confident and have excellent leadership skills. It is also said that those born in the year of the monkey are incredibly positive, energetic, fun-loving and up for a challenge. These attributes will be much-needed by all the participants in this year’s Dragon Boat Festival!

No previous experience is required to take part in the dragon boat racing, just plenty of team spirit so why not take up the challenge? Thankfully, you don’t need the physical strength or athleticism of Steve Redgrave or Jessica Ennis-Hill to be successful, as teamwork and timing will win the day. The dragon boats, qualified helms 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.

Hospices play a key role in providing support and care to people with incurable illnesses as well as their family and friends. At present there are no inpatient hospices in the Waveney and Great Yarmouth area but Festival charity, East Coast Hospice plans to change this. Their vision is to provide an independent local Hospice that delivers expert medical care alongside compassion, dignity, love and peace for those with life-limiting conditions. They aim to support patients and their families to live as well as they can for as long as they can and when the time comes; to support a dignified ending to their life. The funds raised from the East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival will go towards ‘Raising the Roof’ of Margaret Chadd House and helping to turn this vision into reality.

The team raising the most money for East Coast Hospice will be awarded the charity trophy and receive a special prize meal at The Hotel Victoria in Lowestoft. Coast Restaurant at the Hotel Victoria is modern and contemporary, offering delicious locally sourced and freshly prepared food, complemented by a selection of wines from around the world. The stunning sea views and relaxing atmosphere make it a superb way to help celebrate being the top fundraisers. Last year’s charity winners were Mumfords Hardware of Southwold who raised an amazing £5,000 for East Coast Hospice!

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 East Coast Hospice. 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”. 

For further information and an entry form please visit

www.dragonboatfestivals.co.uk/eastanglia or call Gable Events on 01780 470 718. To find out more about the services of East Coast Hospice call 01493 718707 or visit  www.eastcoasthospice.org.uk

Images of dragon boat racing at previous East Anglian Dragon Boat Festivals, courtesy Gable Events picture library and Vanessa Barton Photography

–

The ancient Chinese history of dragon boat racing

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 paddled 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 and all over China 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.

advert