I went to the site and saw the new website but no registration info. Somebody said they may not have it this year. Anyone hear any news?
It's just 6 weeks away.

that would be a real shame. love that event. one of the best. they got bumped from their usual weekend this year by a couple other events at the basin. we avoid events on long weekends. i wonder if this has hurt registration?

NOT! Call the Festival to find out. Bunch of rumour-mills here. Hmm, let's see 8:41am poster put a question up, 8:47am same poster posted his own reply. LOL.

That their delaying so long with registration. Isn't the dadline for team registration supposed to be like in May?

The forms to register for the festival have not been available for about 1 month now.....

I think they might have to move the location due to the Worlds Aquatic... or have it in August

I think you are wrong. I think everyone has too much time. Hahaha...

I think that you think too much.

I heard prices will be increasing for some reason. For all teams across the board.

It'd be a shame if it wasn't held. It's a classic and another reason to see Montreal and get tarshed.

Sucks if we lose it.

Hey when will the forms be available to download ???? or do we just show up like a pick up hockey game this year ?

Probably. Anyone call the festival organizers yet?

I know my team captain called Sunny several times and he's always "busy" and will call you back when he has time which is never. This has been going on since Mid May.
No word on what's happening to his Summer Splash the festival usually has 2 weeks prior to the festival either.

They should announce if it's happening or not....

You guys are good customers.
You will make this festival last, not Sunny.

there was a summer splash poster up at lachine. 16th at 22 dragons site.

2005 Event

For the 10th edition, Manulife Financial has been named title sponsor for the Montreal International Dragon Boat Race Festival. Manulife Financial’s involvement will also provide a base for its fundraising efforts on behalf of the McGill University Health Center Foundation and le Fondation du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal. A portion of all team registration fees will be donated to the two hospital foundations. Team captains will be asking all paddlers to raise funds to contribute towards this cause. $50.00 minimum per paddler in addition to registration fees

The Manulife International Dragon Boat Festival (Montreal) aims to attract over 180 teams from all over Canada, the United States and abroad. The Festival will take place on July 30th and 31st, 2005 at the Olympic Basin at Parc Jean-Drapeau.

"$50.00 minimum per paddler in addition to registration fees"

Word for word what was on the website, EXCEPT for that last sentence quoted. 50$ a head is not small change - where did you get that figure from?

They had a press conference yesterday in Chinatown to announce this ....
Sunny Lam (The organizer) explained that each paddler will be expected to raise $50.00 each in addition to team registration fees which will be going up BTW

That's pretty ballsy.

Sorry but if registration is going up and now paddlers are expected to scramble to find $50 for a "charity" then the MIDBRF, The Chinese Restaurant Assc (bunch of no good crooks, someone should call Revenue Quebec ad Canada and ask for an audit of the last 9 years) and Manulife can kiss my ass. WE go to paddle, not to fund charities we may or may not be interested in supporting. To all, talk to your captains and tell them "Screw MIDBRF" and go to more fun, less expensive festivals.

Still no forms available.....

From the MIDBF Forum:

"Team entry for all categories is $1000 this year.

Last year community teams paid $800."

So the generous charitable donation the festival is making to the hospital foundations will come from the increased registration fees?

The festival is barely 6 weeks away, why isn't any more information available?

You kidding about the donation, right?

Wow.

The organizers will 'donate' "a portion" of the (increased) registration fees. Nice of them. Kind of like a union 'donating' membership fees to the NDP.

Then there's the paddler donation: "expected", "minimum", "required". Or at least that seems to be the case: the (dis)organizers are conspicuously silent.

As a previous poster so eloquently put it, WTF??

Is there something in your translation dictionary that equalts "donation" to "extortion" in french?? 'Cuz I can't find it. (or is this just a learned behaviour, following the Liberal Party practise in Quebec?).

Now, be prepared for the attempted organizer guilt trip: "But it's a good and important cause. We need to support the community (after all, the Province dithered for so long we're losing the Shriner's Hospital)."

"You're just a bad mean person if you don't donate. Shame on you."

no go for the first time...

I prefer to take info on the web with a grain of salt.

What we've got so far is a rumour of a press conference (it could have happened but being dragonboat, God knows who covered it, certainly nobody printed it), and an anonymous poster on another forum announcing a price hike.

On the official MIDBRF site? zippo. As far as I know, my team captain hasn't heard anything despite attempts to contact Sunny.

They may want to give some of the fees to charity, but they sure aren't going to drop 50$ a paddler out of 1000$ registration fee. Some of the corporate teams may be able to drop an extra grand on top of the fees for charity (it might work out close to the old fee - not sure?) but six weeks before the festival coughing up 50$ a head has gotta be a deal breaker for a lot of unsponsored teams. It's suicidal businesswise.

And none of that explains why they haven't posted basic registration info yet. I smell high concentrations of BS. Just not sure which parts are BS yet.

Relax everyone. Not sure why they aren't responding to anyone, but whatever.

As for the forced sponsorship, here is what I think is going on. And I will add that this is my theory and I have absolutely no proof that this is the case, but it makes sense given some similar things I have seen in the past at other festivals.

MTL goes out and gets this big new sponsor. As part of the enticement for the new sponsor MTL says that they will encourage/suggest/URGE all participants to gather donations for this big new sponsors charity. Following so far?

The MTL organizers will not make it manditory no matter how firm the wording is (I would bet almost anything anyway) that each and every entrant raise the $50. The strong wording are all for the benefit of the new sponsor.

Lots of festivals urge paddlers to raise a certain amount for any number of charities. GWN Ontario Place encourages people to gather donations by giving away prizes and stuff. It is encouraged, but never a do it or don't come kind of thing.

Then they should stipulate this fact on the site. It makes it sound like "YOU WILL DONATE $50 PER PADDLER". Talk about scaring away your business.

Still nothing on the site.

The additional fundraising on top of the reg fee is optional, NOT mandatory.

Yo people ! I just checked the MIDBRF web site and it does seem the registration forms and waivers are .. NOT ON YET ! ! !
Can someone please tell me how the best site to hold a dragon boat festival in " La Belle Province" ended up beig managed by a bunch of chinese restaurants "entrepreneurs" ? I mean, for crying out loud might as well have a bunch of cabbage patch kids organize the damn event !!! What does Manulife do in the picture anyways ? If they wanted to have a rep of crooks, that's the best way to handle it. I've heard that Manulife recently experienced "problems" with clients that got caught in one of those financial difficulties with a hedge funds... clients apparently lost their moneys.
Now the wheels keeps on going. Dragon - Boaters are asked to fork MORE MONEY (even though there is a major sponsor unlike previous years) for even less (if that was possible) quality. Talk about screwing people all over the board !!!
I just hope that "mandatory" fundraising is just all talk. Already I can imagine the Chinese Community receiving tons of money from Dragon Boaters (call them suckers).... Oh ! I'm sorry, the right word should be donation right ?

Sigh !

So if Montreal can't get their act together and are too expensive , why not support either Waterloo (who could really use the support) or Sudbury? These festivals have their act together and are both great events.

Lots complain that the big market festivals are too pricey yet year after year, hundreds of teams venture to these events and then spend 51 weeks complaining. Not all but some.

Spread it around so festival organizers are kept on their toes and need to be better organized and priced right. I think that it is absolutely ridiculous that registration forms aren't posted at this late date unless Montreal has become an invitational event only.

Whn is Sudbury? Can you provide a link please?

Try www.sudburydragonboats.org/

A copy of the registration package has aleady been emailed to last year's captains. Looks like their site is a bit slow with updates.

A portion of their reg fees already includes a donation to some charity. They're highly encouraging individual paddlers to get at least $25/each in pledges, but this is NOT REQUIRED.

Out of prov fees:
Corporate: $1400+tax (incl $350 donation)
Community: $850+tax (incl $200 donation)
Student: $550+tax (incl $150 donation)

Quebec fees:
Corporate: $1700+tax (incl $425 donation)
Community: $1000+tax (incl $250 donation)
Student: $550+tax (incl $150 donation)

The deadline has passed.

According to the forms every team has to pay a late fee ?
It states payment after June 10 add %10. Forms had only been given out Sunday June 19
This has to be a joke ??

Sudbury is on the 16th of July and they are still taking "out of town" teams.

Most of the competitive teams will be racing off, no?

So far only a few of the Central region competitive teams will be trekking to Sudbury.

I just downloaded the registration forms and filled them out. To my surprise on page 2, section 2 of the form states and I quote " It is your responsibility to complete the pledging package located on the Festival website (when it is made available). You must provide a copy of the pledging forms to each member of your team. You are also responsible for collecting every pledge forms and money from your team members to the festival office before Wednesday, July 27th, 2005. For example, if you have 23 member on your team, you must submit all 23 pledge forms back to the festival."

Do spelling errors in a legal document consttute an invalid document by the way? Whoever drafted them should be ashamed. Especially if he or she is a lawyer.

It doesn't say if these pledge forms require a minimum pledge commitment or what happens if paddlers or team refuse to commit to pledge activities. Are we refused entry?

I think spending time at the comedy festival or watching fireworks under the Jacques Cartier Bridge are more appealing then worrying about attending this festival in 2005.

This is absolute madness is anyone going to go to this

Agreed. I am getting a headache reading this thread.

Then stop reading the forum Sunny and get back to work ruining your festival.

Sunny's a decent guy. The administration above him are the turds who make life difficult for everyone. All they care about is stuffing their pockets with cash and making themselves look good on stage. They do ZERO work.

I spoke to sunny last week, teams can still enter without additional pledges.

Are any coming?

We would like to take the opportunity to clarify that in our Team Resgistration package, pledging is NOT mandatory. However we do encourage individuals to raise funds of $25 and over. We appologize for any confusion that this has caused and if there are any further questions please contact our office.

Who is entering this race?

Sudbury is not taking new entries, unless they are selectively choosing which teams can and cannot enter, Scotia was told 'no' they can't enter.

For the raceoff portion? The deadline has passed.

For the festival portion they may still take entries.

You're right; the cut-off date for the race-off portion has already passed (June 1). Still accepting any teams for the festival portion.

those teams that planned to go to Monteal will go dispite what may appear to some as a poorly run festival.

Fact is, this is one of the best festivals around and our team has fun going every year, nothing changes.

If you are truly who you said you were, I'll presume you are, I'll try to be as policitally correct about this as I can get.
To quote you : "We would like to take the opportunity to clarify that in our Team Resgistration package, pledging is NOT mandatory. However we do encourage individuals to raise funds of $25 and over. We appologize for any confusion that this has caused and if there are any further questions please contact our office."


Hummm ? Hello ! Reading the thread I realize that INCLUDED in the registration fees A BIG portion is for donation purposes. THE BIG PORTION in some case is like close to 20% of the registration fee. I thought the whole idea of a DONATION was to give freely. It was never under my impression that it was to be a COERCITIVE DONATION. What gives ? Can you guys give us, dragon boaters, a solid reason to pay that fee hike for the sole purpose of "donating" ? And please, don't give us all that political rambling (that means nuthing) that big companies give in shareholder's meeting.

You may have lotsa teams going at the MIDBRF because Montreal is a fun place to go AND because many local teams are caught at the last minute to make changes and/or sentimental value... However, money speaks. You may find next year, many Montreal teams going to the OTTAWA festival (cheaper and GREATLY run) or simply going to smaller festivals. The MIDBRF does not have the exclusivity of dragon boat in "la belle province" anymore. It's waaaaaaaaay past time the thousand chinese board members realize it... less reality hits them full force .

Hmm, someone better go see a psych. You got some rage issues to deal with. Perhaps you need a hug? Anyways, happy paddling everyone this weekend!!!

this weekend? What's going on this weekend? lol
dispite all the bitching and complaining, people will be paddling this weekend. you miss it, you know it. You want it. too bad if you won't be paddling this weekend.

you know i'm right.

Who's going from GTA area?

Actually, I can't say that I've enjoyed the Mtl festival in the past. The bassin is an uncomfortable concrete jungle that has no colour or soul. Making the drive from TO is definitely not worth it, IMO. I feel the same way about other events I've attended there as well (like triathlons), so it's nothing personal against the organizers whom I don't know at all. I think it's a great training facility and is a great spot for rowing regattas (rowing is much more vulnerable to choppy water than DB is), but then when I was rowing I didn't care about anything else except the race itself. DB is different - it's supposed to be more fun and also be a cultural and social experience. As for the night life in Mtl, I think it's over-rated. I much prefer spots in TO or even Ottawa to the smoke filled joints in Quebec (has smoking been banned in Quebec yet? it's been a few years since I've been).

so who's going this Montreal this year? Where are you guys staying, partying?

Can't seperate the average smoking Quebecker from his tabac. It's an extension of their lives. People here forgo food for smokes. We're supposed to be smoke free in 2006.

TO has party spots? When did this happen?

I'll get to live in freedom T-O.