September 3 - September 8, 2024
World Dragon Boat Championships
What a spectacle, this historic competition will return for the second time to light up the Romagna Riviera! Ravenna, which will host the competition, but also my Cervia and Milano Marittima are preparing to welcome, during the first week of September 2024, crews from all over the world who will compete in rowing battles.
Dragon boats are 20-seater canoes with a long keel and a bow and stern shaped like the head and tail of a dragon. The custom of challenging each other on board these boats is linked to a particular legend. In 277 BC, the Chinese poet Qu Yuan threw himself into the river in protest against the government's oppression of the people. Upon hearing the news, fishermen rushed to his rescue in an attempt to save him from drowning.
Since then, during the Duanwo Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, held in China on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, this event is commemorated with a dragon boat competition. Dragon Boat has since also become an international sport.