The Austin Dragon Boat Festival
THE AUSTIN DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 26TH YEAR AS ONE OF TEXAS’S LONGEST-RUNNING CULTURAL CELEBRATIONS, TAKING PLACE APRIL 25 AT FESTIVAL BEACH, LADY BIRD LAKE
The festival honors the ancient sport of dragon boating with over 30 teams participating, while showcasing Austin’s diverse Asian and Pacific Islander heritage with cultural performances as well as an Asian market
(AUSTIN, TEXAS — Feb. 12, 2026; source: Juice Consulting) — The Lunar Foundation is proud to announce that the 26th annual Austin Dragon Boat Festival will take place on April 25, 2026, at Festival Beach, Lady Bird Lake (1621 Nash Hernandez Senior Rd, Austin, TX 78702), starting at 10 a.m. The Austin Dragon Boat Festival is one of Central Texas’s longest-running cultural celebrations, uniting hundreds of paddlers, performers, and families each spring. Established by Amy Wong Mok, Founder & CEO of the Asian American Cultural Center and the President of the Asian American Community Partnership, in 1999, the festival honors the ancient sport of dragon boating while showcasing Austin’s diverse Asian and Pacific Islander heritage.
With over 30 teams, 600 paddlers and 3,000 attendees, the festival welcomes fans and competitors from all over the world. The Austin Dragon Boat Festival is a free, public event, open to all ages, with no admission fee for spectators. Attendees at this year’s festival can also experience an outdoor art gallery featuring Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) artists, as well as a variety of food vendors, including a showcase of zongzi, a Chinese dish traditionally eaten during Dragon Boat Festivals, and part of the festival’s origin.
To register to compete in the race, please see here. For more information on the Austin Dragon Boat Festival, see here. Sponsorship opportunities are also available – for those interested, email here.
“Stepping into stewardship of the Austin Dragon Boat Festival is both an honor and a responsibility,” said Andrew Lee, Co-Chair of The Lunar Foundation. “For more than 25 years, this festival has brought communities together through sport, cultural expression, and shared tradition. As an arts and culture nonprofit, The Lunar Foundation is focused on keeping ADBF accessible, participatory, and reflective of the artistic ways Austin’s communities tell their stories. From paddlers and performers to families and longtime supporters, we’re proud to keep this a free, public event where competition, culture, and creativity belong side by side.”
The Austin Dragon Boat Festival is a 25+ year legacy cultural and sporting event held annually on Lady Bird Lake. Dragon Boat Racing teams representing local communities, companies, universities, cultural associations and more race side by side in friendly competition – the festival works with groups such as the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and additionally, each year the festival holds a powerful Breast Cancer Survivors Flower Ceremony, where paddlers and families gather to honor those they have lost and celebrate those still fighting, a tradition that began when dragon boat racing became a source of strength and recovery for breast cancer survivors around the world. The dragon boat race is a “teamwork” sport of 22 members, moving a 40 ft. decorated dragon boat together to the same drum beats. Competitors from around the world are welcome to take advantage of Austin’s beautiful Lady Bird Lake.
This year, the festival will host a special send-off celebration for the Lone Star Dragons, Texas’s elite dragon boat team that recently qualified for the 15th IDBF Club Crew World Championships in Taiwan. The team, composed of top paddlers from Austin, Houston, and Dallas, earned its spot after qualifying in the 2025 USDBF Club Crew National Championships.
“Dragon boating truly is a team sport,” said Amy Wong Mok, Founder of the Austin Dragon Boat Festival. “When the whole team of 22 members moves as one and the dragon is flying on water – it’s absolutely spectacular.”
The Austin Dragon Boat Festival is one of Austin’s longest-running Asian American cultural events and has been recognized by the City of Austin through proclamations in many prior years – with official Dragon Boat Festival Days occurring from 2015 – 2018. Past teams and organizations that have participated in the festival include H-E-B, Samsung, NXP, Bazaarvoice, and competition teams like the Austin Coolers and KC Pink Warriors. This 2026 festival marks the first year under the stewardship of The Lunar Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting AANHPI artists and cultural initiatives in Central Texas. Programming for this year’s event is to be announced. Keep up with updates on the Festival here.
“Over the past 25 years, the Austin Dragon Boat Festival has provided a venue for corporations and communities to build teamwork and camaraderie through the sport of dragon boat,” said Sheena Chang, Race Coordinator for the Austin Dragon Boat Festival for over 20 years. “It has been gratifying to see more and more people enjoy the sport and learn about the cultural significance behind it. I look forward to seeing what the next 25 years bring for this festival!
ABOUT THE DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL:
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday that occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, originating from the legend of Qu Yuan, a beloved scholar of the people and a minister to the King of Chu, who was eventually exiled by the king. Qu Yuan jumped into the Mi Luo River in protest of the corruption of the era, and although citizens’ efforts to get into boats and race to save him were unsuccessful, they hoped to scare away the fish and evil spirits by beating drums, splashing the water with paddles and throwing rice wrapped in leaves (later known as zhong zi) into the water to feed the fish so that they would stay away from Qu Yuan’s body; this idea would be the origin of the sport of dragon boating (dragons being the river gods in Chinese culture). Today, the festival is celebrated around the world with races as well as the eating of zongzi, and boats adorned with a dragon head and tail – with each race always beginning with a dotting of the eye ceremony, symbolizing the awakening of the dragon.
