LAST CHANCE TO ENTER THE DRAGON

One month to go until the 15thPeterborough Dragon Boat Festival!

With one month to go until the Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival, companies, clubs and organisations from across the area are continuing to sign up teams for this hugely popular annual event. The Festival takes place on Saturday June 15 on the River Nene at the Embankment – and there’s still time to get a team together and be part of it!

Amongst the teams who have already signed up are ASL Group with a Gold entry plus Standard entries from Accent Nene, Barhale, Foster Property Maintenance, Gambro Lundia AB, KDH Projects, Lamb Weston UK, NetSupport Ltd, News International, Park Inn Peterborough, PS Financials, Solstice Pub, Tesco Distribution Depot, Children of Adam and The Voyager Academy.

One of the first teams to enter and largely new to the Festival isnational construction company Barhale, who employ 220 staff at their Peterborough-based regional office in Maskew Avenue. Crew manager, Karl Simkins, says – “We are looking forward to a really fun day out and hope dragon boat racing will invoke our competitive spirit!”

As a few of the team have taken part before, Karl is expecting his team to benefit from the staff motivation and team building potential of competing in the Festival. “Our team, made up of office and site based staff are really looking forward to the camaraderie of competing together.”

Park Inn Peterborough have been competing in the Festival since 2009 and are returning this year to enjoy a family day out and raise local awareness of the hotel. Based on Wentworth Street in the City Centre, operations manager (and crew manager), Ray Keogh, comments: “This is a very social occasion for the staff with different departments having the time to interact, something which is sometimes very difficult in a busy work environment.  The race itself is always fun even just watching and cheering on the team, everyone gets involved and you can see the teamwork and interaction between departments that would not normally work together in our daily business routine.”

Having recently invested £180,000 in refurbishing meeting rooms to increase capacity up to 120 people and with 46 staff on site, Ray isn’t short of potential team members. “All staff interested in participating register their interest and if we get more than we require for the team we put all names into a hat and make the selection. This is the fairest way and agreed by the team themselves.”

Owing to its successful introduction last year, teams will again be racing the smaller 11 person dragon boats and multiple crew discounts are available for those companies wishing to enter more than one team.

Exciting, colourful and great fun, no previous experience is required to enter a team of up to 11 people into the event, just plenty of team spirit and enthusiasm! The dragon boats, qualified helms and all racing equipment are provided and each crew is guaranteed a minimum of three races. The Festival promises a fantastic day for competitors and spectators alike with street entertainment, funfair, inflatable activities and plenty of food and drink for all the family on the bankside. There will also be a fly past by a Hurricane and Lancaster of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

To make sure your company, club or group of friends is on the start line on Saturday June 15 please call Gable Events on 01780 470718 or visit the Festival website at www.dragonboatfestivals.co.uk/peterborough

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