This year’s 19th Dragon Boat Festival, supported by ESP magazine, has been officially launched, now it’s time to sign up!
A full sized dragon boat was put on display in Serpentine Green shopping centre to showcase the event and encourage teams to sign up.
ESP is the new print media partner of the event this year and our guys Mikey Clarke and Darren Grigas were on hand to try out the boat for size and encourage people to get involved.
This year’s Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival, now in its 19th year, will take place on Saturday June 10 at Peterborough Rowing Lake. Up to 50 teams will battle it out over the 200 metre course, cheered on by their supporters who’ll be able to enjoy lots of bankside fun and fundraising activities between races.
The dragon boats, qualified helms and all racing equipment are provided, no previous experience is required and each crew is guaranteed a minimum of three races.
Gable Events, Events Manager Jason Willmer told ESP – “The dragon boat created a huge amount of interest in Serpentine Green and we were inundated with visitors wanting to bang the drum!
“We gave out hundreds of flyers and received a number of enquiries from people keen to enter teams which augurs well for the success of the Dragon Boat Festival in June.
“It was great to be joined by so many staff and volunteers from Thorpe Hall Hospice, our Festival charity as well as our media partners ESP and Connect FM and our thanks to the Management team at Serpentine Green for being so accommodating.”
Anyone can take part with a large enough team and several local businesses have already put their names down including Amaray (Silver team), Ballast Phoenix, Buckles Solicitors, NetSupport Ltd and Rawlinsons Chartered Accountants.
A team from ESP will be taking to part on the day so why not sign up and challenge us to some fun on the water this summer.
There’s always a great atmosphere and the team from Connect FM will be keeping you entertained.
It’ll be a great fun day out for competitors and supporters and will help raise money for the event’s charity partner Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice.
Crews are being invited to raise money for Thorpe Hall Hospice before and on the day of the race. It costs £2.8 million a year to provide incredible care at the Sue Ryder hospice – £1.5 million of that has to come from fundraising.
Thorpe Hall fundraiser Nilesh Patel said: “We’re so pleased to be the charity partner of the Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival for the third year running. Judging by past performances we’re never going to win any awards on the water but we’re great at cheering on other teams and supporting those who choose to use the event to fundraise for us!”
For more info and to sign up please visit www.dragonboatfestivals.co.uk/peterborough.
To speak to the Thorpe Hall fundraising team please call 01733 225999.
Photos: Andrew James Photography for ESP magazine
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