Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is set for this weekend in Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Saturday, August 10, and Sunday, August 11, free, 8:30 am – 6:00 pm
718-767-1776
www.hkdbf-ny.org
More than twenty-three hundred years ago, ailing and exiled Chinese minister and master poet Qu Yuan walked into the Miluo River, intent on ending his life via ritual suicide. His followers’ race to save him, and to honor his spirit by throwing dumplings into the water, is the folklore behind the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, taking place this weekend in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. More than 150 teams will be participating in seventy-three races over the two days, in special dragon boats that can hold as many as twenty crewmembers; among the many competitors are the Schuykill Dragons, the NYHQ Baby Catchers, the Misfits, the Puff Puff Dragons, NY Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital Poseidon, Dragonflies, NYSE Roar, JPMC White Tiger, DEP Dragon Pipers, TASCA Vikings, NYCB Queens Dragons, JPMC Vermillion Bird, MSKCC White Dragons, and Philadelphia Flying Phoenix Premier Flame. The twenty-third annual festivities also include live music and dance, martial arts demonstrations, food booths, and a family-friendly arts and crafts tent featuring the Balloon Man, calligraphy, rice doll making, face painting, kite building, origami, bead stringing, and more. The performances begin on Saturday morning at 10:30 with the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York and continue with Lion and Dragon Dancers with percussionists at the 11:30 opening ceremonies, indie rockers BAAM at 1:00, I Giullari di Piazza music and dance at 2:00, and Shaolin Masters at 3:00. Sunday’s lineup gets under way at 10:00 with Damien Bassman and his Broadway friends, followed by American tap dancing at 11:00, the Bailen Brothers at noon, Mariachi Aguila y Plata at 1:00, the Mawuena Kodjovi Trio at 2:00, and Shaolin Masters at 3:00.