On Oct. 12, 2024, Shoals Scholar Dollars hosted the annual Shoals Dragon Boat Festival at McFarland Park. The festival lasted from 8:30 a.m., with the races beginning at 9 a.m., and finishing at 4 p.m.
Shoals Scholar Dollars has hosted this event for eight years, after taking over from Kilby Laboratory School. Kilby founded the event and hosted it for three years.
The event started with a performance from local musician Ryan Brown and featured Miss Alabama Abbie Stockard, as they participated in the Awaken the Dragon Ceremony. It ended when all of the races had finished and the Northwest Shoals Community College “Patriot Power” team took home the red dragon trophy.
The teams were provided with dragon boats, and each boat featured 20 paddlers, a drummer and a professional steerer to keep them on track and maintain the course.
Admission to the event was free, but vendors and food trucks spanned across the area near the waterfront. There were around 20 local vendors and a diverse variety of food trucks to explore and try.
Burt Helton, who is the director of Shoals Scholar Dollars and has been the host of this event for two years now, encourages food vendors to create a meal that is unique and themed around the festival.
He said, “What we ask our food vendors to do today since it is the Dragon Boat Festival, is to feature an item with some Asian flair.”
One of the food trucks, Hawaiian Ice Paradise, whose specialty is snow cones had themed flavors such as Li-Hing-Mui, Lychee, and Mai Tai, all Asian-themed flavors.
Another food vendor, a hibachi truck named Stix and Stone, was a fan favorite for some attendees.
Mavi Barzallo, a member of the UNA Dorm Lion Boat, the University of North Alabama’s competing team, liked Stix and Stone and was enthusiastic about their to-go boxes for unfinished food.
It was Barzallo’s first time at the Dragon Boat Festival.
“This is my first time here and I didn’t know about it before.” She said,
Barzallo attended with another UNA student, Jack Bonney, who was also competing with the UNA Dorm Lion Boat.
Bonney used to attend the festival when he was younger but took a five-year break before he returned.
Bonney and Barzallo were excited after their first win of the event. Both stated that their favorite part of the event was winning their races.
Helton, the director and coordinator of the event, said his favorite part of the event was watching all of the different teams come together.
“A lot of these are businesses and it’s a good team-building exercise and also, we have lots of folks from the community who look forward to this every year,” he said.
Those who attend the event bring their family and their pets. Jordynn Howle, a vendor at the event, was not expecting the crowd to be as large as it was.
Howle said, “It’s kind of exciting to pull up and see all the people.”
She attended the event in order to sell her handmade crocheted animals, from her business Jordynn’s Jungle. She has been crocheting for a year and a half and has been selling them for almost just as long, though this is her first time selling and attending the Dragon Boat Festival.
Howle thinks that the Dragon Boat Festival is a good way to draw in customers. “I love that they’re having the competition and stuff. It’s drawing crowds and that makes it way better for us vendors.” She said.
Another vendor, Violet Renee Baker, also attended the Dragon Boat Festival for the first time this year. Baker heard of the event last year but was unable to attend. This year, she attended as a vendor to sell her macarons. She said that she knew after lunch, people would want something sweet.
Baker enjoyed watching the boats go by from her tent. “I’ve been able to see some of the boats go across. It’s pretty neat.”
Howle also enjoyed watching the competitors row the boat.
She said, “I really like being able to turn around and see the boats go down as they’re racing because I didn’t realize that it was actually people who rowed the boat.”
The event will happen again next year, with the applications opening around June. Vendors, food trucks, and teams who wish to race can apply on the Shoals Scholar Dollars website, shoalsscholardollars.com.
Helton said, “We’re always looking for teams to join us. It just gets more competitive. We have some very competitive teams that really take this seriously to the point where a couple of the teams are looking at buying their own boat so that they can practice in the off-season.”
