Irving residents can enjoy a free opportunity to celebrate Asian culture during the annual Dragon Boat, Kite and Lantern Festival from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 20 along the shores of Lake Carolyn. The skies will be filled with colorful kites, while exciting dragon boat races, cultural performances, a lantern festival, traditional Asian cuisine, arts and crafts, and educational activities will be made available for attendees to enjoy. The annual DFW Dragon Boat, Kite and Lantern Festival—a premier sporting, cultural and educational event—is hosted by the Marco Polo World Foundation.
“This year, we are expecting 50 dragon boat teams competing for the coveted DFW Grand Championship and 18,000 attendances coming to the festival. We will expand the festival program with more cultural activities and demonstrations.” Said MPWF chairperson and president Diana Meilan Wang and festival chair Bi Ke with following co-chairs Shirley Xiang, James Huang, Huang hua and Merna Parcon. The festival features colorful displays of Oriental lanterns, spectacular kite flying, beautiful Asian dance performances, martial arts demonstrations, traditional ethnic foods, as well as traditional lion and dragon dances. Moreover, a special ceremony is dedicated to increase breast cancer awareness. And the hourly raffle drawings have a lot of prizes which include international round trip tickets presented by EVA Air. The current Grand Champion, City of Irving Fire Department, will fight to retain the title this year again against all comers, such as Louisiana team, Houston team and Austin team.
Dragon boat racing is popular in Asia for centuries and now it is one of the fastest-growing sporting events in America. All festival organizers are volunteers from the community. Strong supports from corporations (such as Michaels), community organizations, the Great Irving-Las Colinas Chamber-Irving Sister Cities and the City of Irving have made this festival possible. The event is free to the public to attend.
