About - Charity Dragon Boat Festivals

Charity Dragon Boat Festivals was started in 2004 by Julian Thursfield, an ex-forces water sports instructor after realising that the majority of the charity dragon boat fund raising events then being run, were closed events for the benefit of those charities who had the staff and resources to organise their own in-house event. 

Wanting to bring the fund raising power of a successful event to all registered charities large and small, he used his knowledge of dragon boat racing and event organisation to set up Charity Dragon Boat Festivals, with the very simple message to the charities "We will organise the event, you just recruit the teams."

The first event was in Chester, where nine teams entered to support seven different charities and over the years, more events and venues were added. To date, 143 charities have been supported and over £533,000 raised.