ANDERSON, SC - The Second Dragon Boat Upstate Festival, along with a chili cookoff, will be October 13 at Portman Marina on Lake Hartwell. Bring your team of up to 20 paddlers to compete.

Dragon Boat festivals are international: Toronto, Philadelphia, Taipei, London, and now Greenville. Now everyone can join a team and paddle for a good cause in this phenomenal sporting event. Dragon Boating brings friends & families, businesses & schools, the entire community together for an exciting day of friendly competition and unique entertainment. A smooth, synchronized team of 20 paddlers can beat a stronger, less-coordinated team. So no matter how old you are, or how fit you are, all you have to do is sit down and paddle. The fun comes naturally.

The Dragon Boat Upstate Festival is an annual community-sponsored event. Inspired by other national and international Dragon Boat festivals, the Dragon Boat Upstate Festival combines outdoor fun with public service. Everyone can participate, as well as spectate:

• To bring an exciting new sport to Greenville and the Upstate area…a fun sport everyone can try, no matter   how old you are or how fit you are.
• To provide an opportunity for companies and civic organizations to build unity through teamwork.
• To enhance the quality of life in the Upstate with a fun-filled water festival for all ages.
• To raise funds for charities and community projects.

The 2007 beneficiary is the Cancer Research & Care Center of the Greenville Hospital System. http://www.ghs.org/

This year’s theme is “Paddle as if your life depends on it”. We all can help the Cancer Research Center in the fight against cancer.

With your participation, this Dragon Boat Upstate Festival will help fight cancer. Your contributions go directly to support the researchers, doctors and caregivers at the Greenville Hospital System Oncology Research Institute (ORI) and the Clinical Research Unit, a collaboration of Greenville Hospital System Cancer Center and CancerCenters of the Carolinas. You are directly helping their many cancer research projects, such as the ORI's Pediatric Leukemia Research in conjunction with the GHS Children's Hospital.

This Cancer Research Center is one of Greenville's most valuable resources. The innovative cancer care and research by the team of Drs. Tom Wagner, Joe Stephenson, Larry Gluck and many others are setting new international standards in our fight with cancer.

Join us for the 2nd Annual Dragon Boat Upstate Festival, and be proud that every time you and your Dragon Boat team paddle, you bring us all closer to winning over Cancer.

History of Dragon Boat Racing
The origin of dragon boat racing can be traced to events that happened in southern China over 2,000 years ago. Originally, boats adorned with dragon heads were part of a fertility rite as a way to encourage plentiful rains and a good harvest.

Dragon boat racing, within the context of a festival, became much more important in Chinese culture with the tragic events surrounding Qu Yuan (pronounced Chu Yuan) around 277 B.C. Qu was a senior minister, diplomat, and poet in the Ch'u feudal kingdom. As a man of integrity and wisdom, he gave truthful advice to the king, advice that angered his political rivals. These rivals persuaded the king to banish Qu Yuan. Despondent over his exile and the subsequent decline of the government, Qu put stones in his pocket and drowned himself in the Mi Lo River. When local fishermen raced out to rescue him, they beat their drums and splashed with their paddles to scare the fish and water dragons away from Qu Yuan's body. They also threw rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves into the water, hoping that the fish would eat the dumplings and leave the body alone.

To commemorate their beloved Qu Yuan, the people of southern China staged dragon boat races to remember the day when they raced into the river in an attempt to save him. The dragon boat races, and the serving of rice dumplings or rice cakes, became an annual event on the fifth day of the fifth month, believed to be the day that Qu Yuan drowned in the Mi Lo River.

The Experience
Dragon boat racing combines brightly colored boats adorned with dragon heads, large crews of men and women straining to go even faster, a drummer pounding out a loud beat for each boat, water spraying everywhere from all of the paddles, and a screaming crowd cheering on their favorite boats. It's loud, exciting, and fun!

The Event
Preceding the actual races, some festivals still practice the ancient ritual of "Awakening the Dragon." An eye-dotting ceremony awakens the dragon and brings out its fire, which gives the boats and their crews the strength of the dragon.

The Sport
Dragon Boat racing is one of the fastest growing athletic events in the world. The World Championships of Dragon Boat Racing have been held annually in Hong Kong since 1976. Since that time, Canada has emerged as a world power, shaking the foundation of a sport which has historically been dominated by Asian countries. Canadian women have won the world championships five of the last seven years, and Canada's men's and mixed crews are current world champions. Albert McDonald, a top paddler on the first Canadian team to win the Hong Kong race, will be in Greenville to help host and train for the Dragon Boat Upstate Festival.

What's most exciting is the growth of the sport at the grass roots level. Although most international crews are either all male or female, national and regional events attract primarily mixed teams from corporations, public service groups, and clubs sponsored by small businesses and high schools.

The Benefits
Dragon Boat racing, the ultimate team sport, is growing exponentially in corporate and community centers worldwide. With a current annual growth rate of 30 to 40%, it offers unlimited potential for corporate team building and promotion.
By participating, here are some of the valuable benefits your organization will realize:

• Untapped and uncluttered sport marketing opportunity
• Extremely high on the "fun, fitness & friendship" scale
• Visually spectacular, exciting, split-second finishes
• Personal satisfaction, plus team development

Dragon Boats
Dragon boats are the largest flat-water racing canoes in the world. These traditional Hong Kong-style boats are decorated with dragon heads and tails. A crew of 20 paddlers, paced by a drummer at the bow and guided by a steersperson at the stern, combine power and rhythm to achieve maximum acceleration and speed over a 200- 500 meter course. A perfectly synchronized team is not only visually spectacular, but almost always defeats a stronger, less coordinated competitor. The race stroke averages between 90 and 100 strokes per minute, with the drummer beating the cadence.

The most important color on the boats is red because red symbolizes heat, summer, and fire. It also represents the number 5, which correlates with the fifth day of the fifth month, the traditional date of the dragon boat celebration.

Boats can range in length from 30 to 100 feet, but the width is just enough to fit two people side by side.