Drums rang through Sloan's Lake Park Saturday, followed by the chanting of rowers. Off to the side, fumes rose from various Asian food trucks, marking another successful year of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival.
The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival — held at the park Saturday and Sunday — celebrated the state's Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander cultures with food, craft goods, local organizations and, of course, dragon boat races.
The weekend marked the 24th year of the free festival, all of that at Sloan's Lake. In the first year, back in 2001, about 16,000 people attended the two-day event, according to Colorado Dragon Boat.
By 2023, that number skyrocketed past 200,000, marking the event as the largest dragon boat festival in the country, according to the organizers.
This year's rendition wasn't short of attendees, either, with thousands packing the north side of the lake.
But while dragon boat races are a staple of ancient Chinese tradition, going back 2,000 years, all Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander histories were represented by dancers, bands and culture-specific retailers.
"It's a celebration of culture," Kahealani Bentosino, owner of Kahealani Lee Designs, said at her festival booth.
Bentosino, a second-generation Hawaiian raised in the Denver region, has been attending the festival for 10 years. Initially, she performed with a hula dance school, but now, she's selling her crafted goods based on a mixture of Hawaiian, Japanese and Chinese cultures — all made from Hawaiian fabrics.
Like her bags, bracelets and fashion accessories, the festival represents that amalgamation of culture.
"I don't fit in anywhere. To my Hawaiian family, I'm considered haole or foreign. But in Denver, I'm considered exotic," she said. "This festival is finding a place, wherever that may be or whatever you're doing... It's not exclusive to how you identify. You can still celebrate the cultures."
"When you are alone, it tends to narrow down your vision and sense of self," Hannah Lim, owner of Hannah's Ceramics Studio in Centennial, said. "But, if you come into a community where there're other people going through the same thing, or other Asian American artists, that provides a lot more support."
Some of Lim's ceramic work, on sale at the festival, showed that duality of self, highlighting how it feels to grow up as a Korean American.
For example, one of Lim's cups had a ramen bowl crafted inside, though the outside was stark white — drastically different on the outside than inside of the home life.
To her, the festival is a place to show off that sense of self and heritage.
"Having these festivals brings that community together," Lim said, noting that she had only really known the Korean American community in the area. "Festivals like this brings every Asian culture in Colorado together."
Marisal Grady, a Filipino American who moved from California two years ago, visited the festival with her young son, Grant Grady.
"We moved here from the Bay Area and there was such a large Asian community there. So, I think having something like this is really nice because it feels like home," Grady said, with Grant smiling next to her, decked out with a dragon painted on his face.
"It's nice for him to be around other Asian people," she said of her son. "Denver is getting more diverse, but it's nice to see everyone in once place."
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