What’s Going On?

Every year teams from all over come to San Francisco Bay to compete in the Dragon Boat races located at Treasure Island. This year good weather brings about good competition and lots of festival goers. At first glance, the festival seems to be a little more organized this year with organized parking lots, more seating for the entertainment stage, a larger kid’s zone, and a section for the finish line officials that is not obstructed by people because it was elevated.

Treasure Island has been the location for these races for quite some time now and it’s been great to be able to travel not so far from San Francisco to part take in some beautiful weather and with great views of San Francisco’s skyline. The festival took place on September 26th and 27th from 8-5pm. I enjoyed the festival on Sunday with beautiful sunny skies. Most of the day were races for the high school divisions, but I believe later in the day the finals for other groups took place along with an awards ceremony to follow.

This year I spent most of my time enjoying the live entertainment taking place on the large stage built near the entrance to the festival. There I was able to enjoy different various martial arts, some singing, and my favorite lion dancing.

Festival goers could take part in many activities this year on location which included Dragon Land (arts and crafts for the youth), a variety of international food vendors, shopping (gifts and other various memorabilia), a health and fitness tent, a couple informational booths, live entertainment, and of course the dragon boat races.

Sunday at the festival was Family Day and families with children were encouraged to come while mascots and other festival characters were there to greet. I personally got to see some stilt walkers around the grounds, Nickelodeon’s Kai-lan, a red and green dragon, a balloon artist, and some volunteers who helped put on temporary tattoos.

Each year the entertainment and the booths become more interesting and as the years press on I’m looking forward to a much larger audience with an ever increasing number of exciting and new vendors. If you haven’t seen dragon boat races before well mark your calenders next year as the competition is fierce for the 300m and 500m races. Parking is free and there are shuttles on and off the island. Passage to and from the island from San Francisco is free, but visitors coming from the East Bay will still have to pay a bridge toll to access the island.

Pictures of the SF International Dragon Boat Festival can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. Feel free to leave comments below for the pictures and the posting.