Submitted by Christina Bremner
The song, “the dragons are back in town” hadn´t been heard in Hannover, Germany, for 2 years. Due to the Corona pandemic, the dragon boat festival had to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021 – so the dragon boat family was happy to celebrate the return of the dragons for the 26th edition on Pentecost weekend, 2022! The most exciting part of the ‘Drachenbootfestival Hannover’ was a premiere: for the first time ever, there was a pink cup! The Pink Dragonistas Hannover were very happy to welcome the Pink Ladies Schierstein and the Copenhagen Dragonboat Team from Denmark as well as 8 pink paddlers from Malmö (who had arrived with a mixed Swedish team) – and they are already planning the next get-together…
All three pink teams competed with mixed teams in the fun-fun category, but also met in a final pink race – where many enthusiastic spectators cheered from the sides of lake Maschsee supporting the amazing performance of the pink ladies. Before their special race, the pink crews assembled for a united warm-up at the same time celebrating life together with the song, ‘Dancing Queen ‘playing.
Four boats filled with pink paddlers from Denmark, Sweden and Germany joined in a very emotional flower ceremony stating: “We paddle because we can. We paddle for those who can´t. We will always paddle in honor and memory of those who are no longer with us”. The lake was soon covered in pink flowers after the flower ceremony remembering those friends and sisters who lost their lives to breast cancer.
During the pink paddling celebration on and by lake Maschsee in downtown Hannover, bonds beyond borders were formed and the Pink Dragonistas hope to soon welcome their European friends again! Paddles up!
