There was excitement in the air as the yellow school bus left the Auraria Campus parking lot Saturday morning.

Over the sounds of the cool September air rushing in through an open window and a creaky rear axle yearning for oil, the passengers excitedly spoke with one another in anticipation for the day ahead. 

That bus was one of many that carried passengers from the campus to Sloan’s Lake Park for the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. Hundreds of vendors and thousands of people occupied the lake’s northern edge, with many attendees setting up camping chairs and finding pockets of shade to get a good view of the lake.

An annual celebration of Colorado’s Asian-American heritage — and one of the largest festivals in the Denver area — the annual festival celebrated its 25th year on Saturday, drawing significant crowds despite taking place later in the year than usual.

Usually held in July, the festival had to be moved to September this year due to concerns about the levels of blue ring algae in Sloan’s Lake, said Executive Director Sara Moore. In working with Denver Parks and Recreation, the festival decided to push the event by a few months this year for safety reasons.

“From my end, we’re just working to ensure we’re going to be sustainable for the next 25 years,” Moore said. “This has been the situation for many years now … we’re just becoming more aware about the lake and the fact that it’s going to need a little more help within the next few years in order for it to still be a viable location for us.”

Moore added that if the health of the lake continues to deteriorate the festival would have to consider moving locations in future years. But at Saturday’s event, the time change seemed to draw more people to the festival.

While the executive director estimated earlier in the week that 200,000 people attended the two-day event last year, multiple festival employees said on Saturday that the numbers they were seeing significantly dwarfed that of recent years. 

Saturday’s event began with preliminary dragon boat races in the morning before an opening ceremony, which included a parade with a dancing dragon and a story about the historic origins of dragon boats.

Speakers also introduced competing teams. One was made up of University of Colorado Alumni; another had traveled from Oklahoma City to compete in the event. One team, sponsored by Mulson-Coors, chanted “ice cold beer” as they were introduced in front of the crowd.

Many attendees took turns between watching the races from the lake’s shoreline and grabbing food from vendors located further onshore. Many of them sold a variety of Asian cuisine, including steamed buns, Korean fried chicken, dumplings, rice noodles, and bento boxes.

But for Tyler Schlepko and Jose Espine, sitting next to each other along the side of the lake, the boat races were the most captivating part of the event.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Espine said. “It’s been fun to watch.”

The free event will continue through the end of the day Sunday on the northern edge of Sloan’s Lake. Parking instructions for attendees can be found on the festival’s website.