Bemidji dragon boat festival marks 20 years, seeks more volunteers

The Lake Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival is heading into its 20th year with a problem that could determine how long the event stays afloat: it is still run entirely by volunteers, and organizers say they need more people to keep it sustainable.

The festival is scheduled for July 30 through August 1, 2026, on the Lake Bemidji waterfront. Organizers say about 200 to 250 volunteers are involved each year, with roughly 30 separate roles to fill and only about eight active members on the planning committee. They want to at least double that committee size so the work does not keep falling on the same small group.

What happens during those three days reaches far beyond the race course. The festival draws about 10,000 people into downtown Bemidji during the week of events, filling restaurants, hotels and storefronts around the waterfront and city center. Over the festival’s lifetime, organizers say it has helped raise close to $1 million for local groups, with all proceeds going back into the community through Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce and Bemidji Rotary Club initiatives.

The event started in 2006 when the chamber and Rotary partnered to bring dragon boat racing to Bemidji after seeing how a similar festival in Superior, Wisconsin, could showcase a waterfront community. What began as a Friday parade and Saturday race day has grown into a Wednesday-through-Saturday lineup with Sanford Health Taco Fest for United Way, race-day breakfast, a mimosa and Bloody Mary bar, evening entertainment, and a full slate of racing.

The festival website says the celebration includes great food, music, kids’ activities, a parade of teams, cultural performances and a 5K and kids’ fun run. The opening parade and ceremonies are tied to the Chinese heritage of dragon boat racing, and Concordia Language Villages helps lead those traditions. The 5K Run/Walk was added in 2014, followed by the 1/2K Kids Fun Run in 2016, as the event steadily expanded into a larger family draw.

Visit Bemidji lists the Dragon Boat Festival among Bemidji’s signature destination events, alongside Loop the Lake, Water Carnival and First City of Lights. For a community event that has become a late-summer anchor for Beltrami County, the next chapter may depend less on the boats than on whether enough residents step in to do the work.