This year’s Tim Hortons Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival is going to be an artistic and cultural cornucopia of fun. Not only will it be the site of only the second ever Ice Dragon Boat Festival in all of North America (Psst, we did the first one too!) a *ahem* cool combination of Chinese tradition and Canada’s tradition of winter sports, but much, much more. The festival will open with that similar combination of Chinese and Canadian tradition with performances from The Success Lion Dance Troupe and with dancers from Aboriginal Experience who will be gracing the stage with a taste of Canadian-Aboriginal culture.
Lumiere Ottawa 2006
More heritage performers will be populating the weekend’s festivities with some visits from the Bytowne Cryer, a callback to yesteryear when the Rideau Canal was just a dream in Colonel John By’s mind. You can’t go skating along the canal without at least thinking about the Scandinavian roots of not only skating but most winter sports, so how else to pay tribute to that than by a visit from the Royal Family of Arendelle, Elsa and Anna.
Human canvas artists from National Capital Region’s Colourful Chameleon will be ensuring the racing surface itself isn’t the only thing shiny and glittering. Rounding out our foray into Ottawa culture how could anything be a better representation of this great city than a nod to both its tradition of charity and one of its favourite sons, Dan Aykroyd? The volunteer charity group, Capital Ghostbusters will be on hand to ensure that the only spirits raised will be those of the participants at the 2nd Tim Hortons Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival!
