Cultural Displays and Pavilions

Dragon boat comes from an ancient Chinese tradition that is equal parts racing and culture, but also a showcase of the local community. Join us on Championship Weekend and explore the interactions between tradition and the current-day multicultural communities that make up our social fabric.

We’re getting set for our 2024 event- information on our pages is getting updated right now. The 2024 Festival’s full program will be published May 21- we can’t wait to see you over the first weekend of summer very soon!

Championship Weekend –  June 22-23, 2024

Chinatown Pavilion  |  TD Main Stage Zone  |  With the support of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden

2024 programming TBA

Indigenous Cultural Pavilion  |  TD Main Stage Zone

The Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival is hosted on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands and waters of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. As part of our efforts to engage with Indigenous communities and to highlight the deep culture of the territories we now occupy, we are pleased to work with local Indigenous artists, elders, and organizations to program the Indigenous Cultural Pavilion.

2024 programming TBA

Pride Pavilion  |  TD Main Stage Zone  |  With the support of the Vancouver Pride Society and community partners

2024 programming TBA

Medal Presentations  |  June 23  |  Medal Podium, TD Main Stage Zone

Join us starting at ~1:00 PM as the medals are awarded for the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival in each division and for each Grand Final race!

Dragon Boat Public Art Program  |  TD Main Stage Zone

A special public art program is on display at the Festival, showcasing 9 different artists that created artwork around the theme of community, culture, and competition for the boats being used exclusively once a year during the Festival’s races. See the boats race on land, and see the artwork up close on land around the site! Artists include:

• Bagua Artist Association: Bedecked with Pearls and Glimmering Jade
• Carmen Chan: Rice and Rain
• Chairman Ting: Billion Buns
• Chepximiya Siyam/Chief Janice George and Skwetsimeltxw Willard ‘Buddy’ Joseph: Midnight Lightning
• Debra Sparrow: A Hundred Years of History
• Derek Tam: Convergence
• Joslyn Reid: Good Sport
• Kari Kristensen: Paper Boats
• Ocean Hyland: People of the Inlet

Expo 86 Original Teak Dragon Boat Display  |  TBA
With the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Toronto).

See one of the original teak boats used at Expo 86 to launch dragon boat racing in Canada! After being restored in 2017, the boat now returns to Vancouver and False Creek as part of a mobile display to reconnect paddlers to their heritage.

The display will also feature archival clippings from when the boats were originally unveiled in 1986, as well as information on dragon boat’s evolution in Vancouver.

Festival Protocol and Ceremonial Programs

2024 Festival Blessing Ceremony – Awakening of the Dragons |  Saturday June 15, 1:30 PM  |  1 Athletes Way

An ancient ceremony conducted on the shores of False Creek. Join us as we carry on an important tradition into the modern era.  

The Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society is honoured to invite you to witness an ancient Taoist blessing and eye-dotting ceremony. Be present as our dragon boats come to life for the first time, and the spirit of the dragon is summoned to the water in advance of the Festival. This event is conducted by the International Taoist Church of Canada.

Click here to learn more.

• FREE ADMISSION
• Creekside Paddling Centre/Dragon Zone Paddling Club, 1 Athletes Way
• For media inquiries, please email [email protected]

Cultural programs presented with the support of:

 Click here for the previous year’s Cultural and Roaming Performance schedules and programming.