The ninth annual Rowan Chamber’s Dragon Boat Festival is set to return to High Rock Lake this Saturday. The event is the largest one on the lake.

The festival will start at 9 a.m. at the Rowan Shrine Club located on Long Ferry Road beside the lake. Dragon boat races will run from the beginning until the awards are presented to the winners at 3:30 p.m.

Attendance of the festival itself will be free for anyone wishing to go. Registration for dragon boat teams has ended with 31 different teams registered in the race, the most ever to enter. The event is the chamber’s annual small business fundraiser, and this year more than 4,000 spectators and competitors are expected to be on the grounds and water that day.

Parking will be at the lots adjacent to the Shrine Club and cost is $5, with all parking proceeds going to the East Rowan Booster Club. Additional parking will also be provided a short distance away on Hedrick Lambe Drive with trolleys and van shuttles running between them and the Shrine Club.

Along with the main attraction of the dragon boat races, various exhibitors and vendors will be set up at the event. Food vendors such as Belly’s Soul Food Diner, Hot Dog Shack, The Smoke Pit and more will be there along with drink vendors such as New Sarum Brewing Company and Cheerwine to provide refreshments. Exhibitors will include businesses such as Backcountry & Beyond, High Rock Healing Arts and Graphic Wolf Art among many others.

Music will be provided Livingstone College’s WLJZ 107.1 FM radio station along with station manager Mz. Good Newz providing commentary during the vent. Doug Rice, the president of Performance Racing Network, will call the races live in-person as well as broadcasting over 107.1.

The dragon boats will each be piloted by 20 paddlers, one steers person and team drummer or mascot. The middle eight seats are reserved for the heavier, stronger paddlers and the stroke rate is usually determined by this core. Teams must have a minimum of eight female paddlers in the boat during competition and all paddlers must be 14 years or older. Olympic-style medals are awarded to first, second and third place winners in each division, with an overall champion named at the end. Defending 2022 champions are F&M Bank’s Strokes of Genius. The boats will participate in three different heats in which they will race against multiple other boats down a 300-meter straight course across the lake. Individual races can last between two and 3.5 minutes. This year’s contest will feature 31 dragon boats, the largest number ever.

The equipment for the races, including boat and paddles, are being provided to the teams by Pan Am Dragon Boat, a company that focuses on training and supplying equipment for various dragon boat races around the county. The company will also be training the competitors on Thursday and Friday night before the actual races.

“We appreciate our dragon boat sponsors, teams, vendors and volunteers. The chamber would like to especially thank Committee Chairman Daniel Matangira, who has inspired us to make 2023 the best festival ever. This fundraiser benefits our small business programs and services and is a wonderful team building exercise,” said Chamber President Elaine Spalding in a previous news release.

The sport of dragon boat racing originated over 2,500 years ago in Southern China and has been practiced continuously since then in annual water rituals, festival celebrations, and for the traditional worship of the Chinese water dragon rituals. The boats were traditionally made out of teak wood and had decorative dragon heads and tails on the front and back of the boats.

Visitors are encouraged by the Rowan Chamber of Commerce to bring lawn chairs and blankets but no pets, coolers or outside food will be allowed into the event.