Thousands of people attend Newark Dragon Boat Festival for Beaumond House Hospice Care and Children's Bereavement Centre
The biggest fundraising event of the year for two charities brought thousands of people to Newark at the weekend.
Riverside Park was full for the Newark Dragon Boat Festival, which raised money for Newark-based charities Beaumond House Hospice Care and the Children’s Bereavement Centre.
Racing took place on the nearby River Trent, while Riverside Park hosted entertainment and attractions.
“The Dragon Boat Race is likely to be our biggest fundraiser for both charities so whatever we get, we’ll be grateful.” said Cathy Lowe, representative of Beaumond House Hospice Care.
“This is a fantastic facility and venue, we have the castle with the river, it’s really nice to have an event here. It’s just lovely to see so many people come together and have a good time.”
The event opened with two minutes of silence in memory of the Queen followed by the national anthem.
“We felt like the Queen was so supportive of charities that we don’t think she would want to see our biggest charity event being cancelled, and she was all about bringing the community together.” said Rachel Wilson, of the Children’s Bereavement Centre.
The family-friendly included a carnival with different activities, such as face painting, ball throwing and fishing to keep the youngest and even the eldest entertained.
There was also a wide range of food and drink stalls and constant entertainment at the main stage from dancers and singers like Macarrena and Baby Shark to live music and acts.
“Last year we raised £46,500 so if we could match what we did last year that would be absolutely amazing, obviously times are very difficult for some families and we’re aware of that so we try not to put a target on it.” said Rachel Wilson.
“We don’t want people to think that we’re not pleased with what we achieved.”
The event's biggest sponsor is Motorfinity, who organised the carnival and was also was one of the teams racing.
Amy Johnson, the team leader at Motorfinity said: The first time we participated was last year but I think every single person within our company, apart from one or two, is here today doing something,
“It isn’t about winning or losing for us, it’s about being involved in the day, supporting the local charity and just having fun!”
From the 35 Newark companies and organisations taking part in the race, the winner team this year was UMC Architects.
Second and third place respectively were Future Cloud Accounting and United by Football, who were the winners last year.
The Newark Scouts decided to have their go at the dragon boat race this year, to be out in the community and try their best chance at victory.
“Today we have about 23 people from the Scouts, this is the first time we’re participating in the race, we’re looking forward to the challenge.” said Richard Delarov, a representative of the Newark Scouts.
“Hopefully, we will do well — we have sea scouts on the crew, an ex-marine who is a dragon boat racer and six members of our sea scouts group.
“We took part in the boat race last year and as a charity ourselves, we want to support charities here in Newark, it’s really important to us to be part of the community in Newark and both Beaumond House and Children’s Bereavement Centre are incredible charities, we’re all part of that community.” said Caroline Cartwright, team leader the YMCA team who admitted to have her legs shaking by the end of the race.
For the people who weren’t able to be at the event, there’s still an opportunity to donate at the charities.
On the Dragon Boat festival website https://www.newarkdragonboatfestival.co.uk/teams , choose a team and donate £5 to that team, which will go straight to the charities.
There were 87 volunteers helping on the event and the two organisers Rachel and Cathy are already thinking of next year’s Dragon Boat race.
