LAKESIDE – Organizers for the Montana Dragon Boat Festival held an open house in Lakeside on Feb. 23, with the goal of providing information to the local residents and business owners on the possibility that the event will move to the west shore for the summer of 2015.
Representatives from the Kalispell Convention and Visitors Bureau, which organizes and puts on the festival, the West Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce were on hand to answer questions and take comment during the meeting.
Each participant was asked to write down comments about the potential change of venue for the festival, Diane Medler, director for the KCVB, said, and those comments would be considered by the KCVB and eventually Flathead County.
“All of these comments will be read,” Medler said. “Maybe there’s something in them we haven’t thought about yet.”
In late 2014, the KCVB announced that it was going to pursue the potential for a venue change because the festival, headed for its fourth summer, needs to become more economically viable if it is to survive for the long term. Medler said the original location at the Flathead Lake Lodge was gorgeous, but renting the venue is expensive and parking has become costly as well.
Due to the lodge’s location, many of the thousands of spectators must pay to park and then ride buses, for which the KCVB paid, to the event.
“We’ve outgrown any available close parking in Bigfork,” Medler said at the open house. “This [move to Lakeside] will allow for walkable parking.”
Most of the attendees at Tuesday’s open house were curious about the proposed course and spectator areas, as well as how the two-day event – planned for Sept. 12 and 13 – would impact the town.
Some voiced concerns that the dragon boat festival would turn the town upside down, like the Fourth of July revelry seems to do each year. Medler said the concern is understandable, but the KCVB has the experience and know-how to put on a major event like this.
Unlike the Fourth of July, the dragon boat festival would have law enforcement and designated traffic control. The dragon boat festival is also a “very family-friendly event,” Medler said, and only runs until 4 p.m. at the latest, so there won’t be all-night parties to worry about.
The proposed sites include the main festival space at Volunteer Park, with a view of the racecourse right off shore. Medler said organizers are continuing to work with the eight or so landowners along Lakeside Boulevard to determine if they are amendable to spectators accessing their shoreline properties, and to what extent.
After the open house, Medler said she had the feeling many of the attendees had a better understanding of what the festival is actually like.
“We felt very positive about it, people came in with questions which is great,” she said. “We felt like when they got a better understanding of our plan and our ability to manage large events, they were more supportive.”
Medler expected the written comments to be transcribed by March 2, giving the KCVB has time to address specific issues before it goes before the Flathead County Board of Adjustment in April to discuss the conditional use permit needed to hold the festival in Lakeside.
Once the Board of Adjustment makes a decision, it will go before the Flathead County Commisson for approval.
Medler also said there has been growing concern in the last few years about the general choppiness of the waters of Flathead Lake near Bigfork, since the dragon boats are long, thin, low-to-the-water vessels holding 22 people, and therefore risk tipping.
Along with information about the general festival and what it would entail, the KCVB provided maps of cumulative wave height each hour on Flathead Lake, provided by Mark Lorang at the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station.
These maps showed the average wave height each hour on the lake, with the area near Bigfork bay and site of previous dragon boat races proving to be the roughest area of the lake.
“Lakeside has less waves as compared to the East Shore near the Flathead Lake Lodge,” Lorang wrote.
Along with providing more safety for the paddlers, calmer waters mean the festival would be more predictable and consistent, Medler said.