Up to 45 teams are set to Race The Dragon in Day-3 of the 2024 Bradford Dragon Boat Festival!
Teams will once again converge on Roberts Park on Sunday 21 July 2024 to Race The Dragon in Day three of the annual Bradford Dragon Boat Festival.
The Multi Charity Championship where, due to the success of the festival and high demand from teams, the day is split into two categories: “Standard Division” (designed for novices in dragon boating) and the “Super Cup Division” (designed for Experienced Teams / National / International teams). 33 teams will race in the Standard Division and 12 teams, the Super Cup Division.
The main difference between The Lord Mayor’s Festival (day 2) and this event is that teams entering this event are able to nominate and fund raise for an Official partner charity or a charity of your teams choice.
Along with the dragon boat racing, there will also be international food vendors each serving their diverse range of wonderful foods, bars, children’s rides and entailment, market stalls and a whole host of traders and vendors, some of which we know will have travelled from overseas just to be at this festival.
The Bradford Dragon Boat Festival is already the largest event of it’s kind in the UK today. Designed as a free to spectate festival, the event is organised by the community of Bradford for the community of Bradford.
Event information
The day starts off at 8:30 with participant check in, after which the first teams will be called up for their safety briefing. Each team is given a full safety briefing before their first race, which along with best paddle technique and how to stop the boat capsizing as well as what to do in the event of a capsize. Race The Dragon wristbands will then be issued to every team member at the briefing, which then allows them access to the waterside of the event and the dragon boats.
A dragon boat team has a maximum 16 paddlers and a drummer per race. You may wish to have additional team members to rotate between races during the day.
Racing is over a course of 200 meters with the start just beyond the cricket pavilion and the finish in front on the crowds in Roberts Park. Each team will have a minimum three timed races where their single fastest time only will count for Grand Final qualification. What this means is, even if two of your races are both disasters, one great time is still all you need to be in with a good chance of going through to the Grand Final race.
After each race, the scores will be announced over the event p.a. and then put up on the event scoreboard and the festival’s BIG screen TV for everyone to see and compare.
What you will be aiming to achieve is an opportunity to compete in the last race of the day … the Grand Final. This will be a race where the top three teams from across all the qualifying heats will race once more in the most competitive race of the day. The Grand Final will be a 3-boat race to the finish where first across will be declared: Lord Mayors Champions of Bradford 2024.
Team work is vital if a fast time is going to be achieved and for this reason, the instructors will also give ‘on the water’ training to help with technique. Over the distance we race, fitness is not a key factor – technique however is. So it does not matter if your team is made up of just 12 paddlers or 16, because it’s a team sprint where team work and timing is everything.
The event will finish with our award ceremony where team trophies were awarded to the Captain’s of the top three teams and Winner’s Medals to each member of the winning team. It’s a brilliant day out.
Where is the event?
Roberts Park
Higher Coach Rd,
Shipley BD17 7LU
Are you ready to “Race The Dragon”?
Youth Championship
Youth
Championship
Following several years of developing the sport of Dragon boating within the Bradford district, the Youth Championship has firmly become an integral part of the hugely successful Bradford Dragon Boat Festival. There will again be TWO competitions on the Youth Day!
Lord Mayors Championship
Lord Mayors Championship
The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Gerry Barker, has chosen Bradford Cinderella Club as his charity of the year 2023-24, provided treats to underprivileged children since its first event in Thackley Woods in 1890.
Multi Charities Championship
Multi Charities
Championship
Dragon Boat Racing is seen today as the UK’s ultimate team sport, the festival is open to teams to enter from local companies, sports clubs & social clubs – The perfect way to fundraise and support either a festival partner charity of a charity of your team’s choice.
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