The sounds of dragon boats paddling and drums banging won't be as prevalent in the Nanaimo Harbour, as organizers are shifting the event to Victoria...at least for now. (Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival)

By Jordan Davidson

heading south

Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival moving to Victoria for 2024 summer races

Mar 27, 2024 | 10:17 AM

NANAIMO — A staple summer event for the Harbour City will be relocating down-island this year.

Rising costs have forced the 2024 Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival, run by the Fairway Gorge Paddling Club, to Victoria on July 13-14.

Race director Erik Ages said the financial costs have simply become too much for them to bear, and hosting it at their own facilities is their best option to keep the festival alive.

“That coupled with increasing costs have resulted in us just not being able to execute in Nanaimo for this year, just because the costs were dramatic…by stagging it out of our own facility, at least for this year, we were able to produce a full-scale dragon boat festival that everyone’s training for.”

Ages said provincial grants to get community events back on track following COVID have dried up, which were key to helping them return in 2022 after a two-year hiatus.

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“All community festivals are carefully run,” Ages told NanaimoNewsNOW. “We’re a non-profit society, so profit is not the motive for running these community events, but deficits, debt in fact, is not what viable, healthy, non-profit organizations can handle.”

He said holding the event in Victoria saves them significant labour costs, representing about half of their total expenses.

They also save money on concession costs and additional insurance which comes with hosting an event in a public place like Maffeo Sutton Park.

But Ages said besides the location, the Dragon Boat Festival will look the same as every other year, with 500 metres of hard paddling racing, along with some of their fan favourites like the guts and glory event.

He said they are already in talks with the City of Nanaimo and local stakeholders about how to bring the festival back to Nanaimo in 2025.

“Thankful for the goodwill of the Nanaimo community, and in the end we are all Islanders, and all Island communities are facing similar pressures for public events across the board, and it speaks to the need for a larger discussion about how communities up and down the island support community-based events.”

Local organizers for the festival stated the decision was to keep paddles and boats in the water this summer.

“Be assured, we are working with Nanaimo community leaders to bring the festival back to Nanaimo’s harbour in following years, but we made a survival choice for 2024: either cancel or move. By moving, teams can still gather, celebrate and enjoy quality race experiences.”

More information on this year’s Dragon Boat Festival can be found here on the Fairway Gorge website.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow