The 35th annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is set to return to Flushing Meadows Corona Park next month, bringing fun and lively boat races to Meadow Lake for the largest multicultural festival in New York state.
The festival, which is one of the largest dragon boat festivals in the United States, also features an assortment of Asian cuisine and multicultural performances over a packed schedule on Aug. 9-10.
The 2025 festival honors the Year of the Snake and promises to bring together tradition, competition and celebration in a free event that celebrates the ancient Chinese tradition of dragon boat racing.
The festival’s boat racing roots can be traced back to 278 B.C., when Qu Yuan, an idealistic Chinese poet and performer, drowned himself “to protest against his emperor’s policies.” The Dragon Boat Races are inspired by the efforts by locals who raced in their boats to attempt to rescue Yuan and save his body from being eaten by “water dragons.”
In the Dragon Boat Races, colorful teak boats weighing one ton are used. These boats are custom-made in Hong Kong and feature the head of a dragon at the front and its tail in the back. As many as 20 people operate each boat during the race.
Festival chairman Henry Wan, who co-founded New York’s Dragon Boat Festival in 1991, said the festival has grown astronomically since its inaugural year on the Hudson River 34 years ago, which featured 10 teams who struggled in the Hudson’s challenges conditions and currents.
The event soon moved to Meadow Lake and has grown exponentially since that inaugural year, with organizers expecting more than 180 teams and over 2,000 athletes to take part in a range of categories this year.
They are also forecasting that more than 40,000 spectators will flock to Flushing Meadows Corona Park to watch the festival over the course of the weekend, with events running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.
Wan said the 2025 Festival will feature a number of different race categories, including regular divisions, mixed divisions and youth challenges. There will also be a number of invitational events, including corporate and non-profit invitation, which invites representatives from corporate sponsors and local non-profits to put forward a team.
Some events will require heats due to the number of participants, Wan said.
He said first-time viewers will experience an exciting event featuring colorful boats measuring up to 50 feet long that cut through the water at high speeds.
“It’s very fast,” Wan said. “It’s a very exciting experience.”
Wan added that the decision to relocate to Meadow Lake has been a beneficial one, noting the strong Asian community in nearby Flushing. He said organizers were initially skeptical about relocating the event so far from Manhattan but said spectators have continued to flock to the event at its new Queens home.
He encouraged anyone thinking of traveling to the event to take the 7 train to Mets-Willets Point and avail of free MTA shuttle buses running from the subway station to Meadow Lake.
“We encourage people to take the MTA shuttle bus, which runs from the City field, beginning at around seven in the morning all the way to about six o’clock at night,” Wan said.
The festival is not only a celebration of dragon boat racing, but also of Asian food and culture.
Wan said the event will feature a “famous Hong Kong street food corner,” offering some of the staple dishes found on the streets of Hong Kong. It will also feature Filipino, Korean and Mexican food trucks, offering dishes from around the world.
Meanwhile, the festival will feature an assortment of traditional Chinese music and dance performances in addition to kung fu demonstrations and family-friendly games that spectators can take part in. Community organizations and non-profits will also be on hand to provide information to spectators.
Last year’s event also featured performances from the Queensboro Dance Festival, McManus Irish Dance and Dynasty Breaking NYC in addition to traditional lion and dragon dances by the Wan Chi Ming Hung Gar Institute.
Previous festivals have also featured storytelling events for families, providing parents and children with thrilling dragon tales.
