The Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival (TIDBRF), is an annual dragon boat race and cultural event, first held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1989. It developed from the Toronto Chinese Business Association held in Toronto, Ontario. An associated festival highlights Asian and other culture in Toronto.
Venue
Races were originally held at the Ontario Place West Channel at Ontario Place, and since 2007 races have taken place in the Main Channel at Centre Island, one of the Toronto Islands. The Main Channel race course is long and six lanes wide.
Format and Rules
Races occur over two days. Once separated into Community and Corporate categories, races were combined into the following categories for the 18th (2006) festival: Premier Mixed (at least 8 women) Premier Women (all women) Junior Mixed (at least 8 girls)
In addition to divisional finals seeded by aggregate time from two heats, there are also industry finals for teams representing groups in certain categories. In 2006, these were: Community groups Non-profit groups and charities Universities Other education groups Hospitals Industries Breast cancer survivors Technology & Communications companies Pharmaceutical companies