One of Vancouver’s biggest festivals cancelled for 2026
Dragon Boat BC has confirmed that there will be no Vancouver Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival in 2026.
The cancellation is due to the FIFA World Cup coming to Vancouver next year and restrictions around the event.
The festival’s organizers say they’ve been informed that under the Host City Agreement, events like theirs won’t be permitted within a specific radius of BC Place (or even across the city) for a chunk of 2026.
“It’s all of it,” said Dominic Lai, senior director of development, marketing, and operations at Dragon Boat BC, when asked how much the World Cup influenced the decision.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, if we are told that we cannot run an event from the beginning of June until the end of July, that’s not really our decision.”
A massive loss for the organization and community
Cancelling the festival is a big hit to the nonprofit, Lai explained to Daily Hive.
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The organization runs a dozen events throughout the year, but this flagship festival makes up a huge portion of their operating income.
“Having 35 to 40 per cent of our operations fee impacted by this cancellation is going to have ripple effects. There’s no way around it,” said Lai.
He added that staff, paddlers, and partners have been doing everything they can to find alternative solutions, but so far, there’s no confirmed support from the City or the Province.
“We’ve provided detailed financial and operational pieces… and we are ultimately in a bit of a waiting game.”
Vancouver’s homegrown global festival
The Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival is the largest in North America and draws thousands of paddlers, performers, and fans from all over the world, according to Lai.
“This past year, we had about seven and a half thousand racers and race supporters representing 222 team entries from nine countries around the world… and we had about 125,000 visitors over the course of the weekend,” Lai shared with Daily Hive.
He described it as a “locally grown global event” that showcases Vancouver’s identity, both to the world and to the community it serves.
“All of our artists, our cultural carriers, are participants on stage, are all from around the area, because we want to celebrate what makes our community good… it means a lot for the global paddling community, but it also means a lot for the local community.”
Any hope for 2026?
While Dragon Boat BC will continue hosting its smaller events throughout the year, the organization has confirmed that the flagship Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival will not take place in 2026 due to FIFA World Cup restrictions.
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The organization has proposed alternate versions of the event, at different times, in new locations, or with other formats, but needs partners on board.
“Everyone wants to see this succeed, and we’re just waiting for the last couple of people to get on board our team… so that when we come back in 2027 and beyond, we can continue the momentum that we’ve built up over the last four decades,” Lai said.
His message to disappointed fans, racers, and supporters is: “We’re going to keep on doing anything it takes to bring our community together… but ultimately it comes back down to we need our community to step up, because we ultimately serve the community.”
He acknowledges the excitement around FIFA but believes that the community shouldn’t be left behind.
“We know that the games are going to happen. It’s going to bring a lot of community benefit… but we just want to see that at the same time these community benefits are arriving and supporting some places in town, we make sure that it supports as many people as possible across the entire city.”
The risk of losing what makes Vancouver unique
Lai worries that without proper support, Vancouver risks losing the very things that make it special.
“If we keep on losing events that define what Vancouver is… then where are we as a city, and what does that say about us?”
The Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival typically takes place around False Creek, near Science World, drawing tens of thousands of spectators to Vancouver’s waterfront each year.
He emphasized the role that community events play in shaping the city’s identity, both for locals and for visitors.
“It’s so important that when we bring in these big global events, we take a step further and leverage them so that we can also grow our own homegrown global events… there’s so many great events locally, and we just have to step up to support them.”
Daily Hive has reached out to City of Vancouver for comment and will update this story as more information becomes available.
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