Dragon boat racing comes to Athlone this weekend

This Saturday will see an unusual activity take place in Athlone: dragon boat racing. The distinctive boats, which traditionally are made in China, will feature in a fundraising fun day on the River Shannon. The event will combine river activities with live music in the Left Bank area and it is seen as a first step towards reviving the annual Athlone River Festival. The river festival has not taken place for several years but a committee came together in recent weeks with the intention of breathing life into it once again. The committee consists of Left Bank publicans Tim Donovan (Sean's Bar), John McDermott (Castle Inn), Justin Naughton and Paul Brennan (The Snug), Michael O'Brien (iRadio), and Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran. This Saturday's event is being organised in association with the Baysports boat training and watersports centre in Hodson Bay. Mr Donovan stated that if the one-day event on Saturday is successful he hopes it will lead to a three or four-day river festival in 2012. "We have a great asset in the river but at the moment it's not really being used," he said. "A few years ago there was a fireworks display at the end of the river festival and we had 30,000 people come into town for it, so we're hoping to work towards something like that again." This weekend's festivities will start with a safety briefing on Saturday afternoon and this will be followed by the racing along the river. There will be a Left Bank Challenge race between teams from Sean's Bar, The Snug and The Castle Inn, and another challenge race is planned involving representatives of local companies. The dragon boats are being brought in from Carlow and Dublin for this weekend, and the day will also involve rowing races, barrel races and currach races. In addition, there will be outdoor music and food taking place during the afternoon and evening in the Left Bank area. Entry forms are available from Sean's Bar, The Snug and The Castle Inn, and all proceeds from the day will go to the RNLI lifeboats charity.