San Francisco's Dragon Boat Festival returned to Lake Merced last weekend — its first full run since 2015 — drawing 3,000 spectators, 30-plus crews, and the first phoenix boat ever raced in the United States.

The last time San Francisco held a Dragon Boat Festival, Barack Obama was in the White House and Treasure Island was the venue. That was 2015. Plans to redevelop the island put the festival — which had run since 1996 — on indefinite hiatus. Competing events took root in Oakland and Foster City, but not here, in the city where Bay Area dragon boating began.

This past Saturday and Sunday, June 20–21, Lake Merced Park in the city's quiet southwest shook off that silence. The crack of a drummer's beat carried across the water as teams of 20 paddlers drove through 200-meter sprints, dozens of crews of all ages — including a San Francisco Sheriff's Office team and Bayview high schoolers — racing for the finish line. More than 3,000 people came out over two days, per the SF Standard, culminating in a 2,000-meter final for the top 12 teams. Roast pork trays came out on shore after.

The organizing spine is Henry Ha, program director at the Community Youth Center, who has been involved in dragon boating for more than 20 years — first as a teenager after arriving from Vietnam, then as a coach who built up SF's only public youth team and expanded it to Bayview high schools, recruiting Black, Pacific Islander, and Latino students. "I don't care if you count in Chinese, Spanish or English, as long as it's in sync," he told Mission Local. Trips he led to Pearl River Delta festivals in 2024 and 2025 gave him the blueprint. He joined the California Dragon Boat Association as a director and spent more than a year on permits, fundraising, and vendor recruitment to get the festival back.

The headline object of this year's event: a phoenix boat, whose carved head and tail were shipped from China. The California Dragon Boat Association says they are the first of their kind in the United States. Historically, dragon boats were reserved for male paddlers; phoenix boats for women. The Phoenix Women Warriors — assembled almost overnight, including paddlers who hadn't touched an oar in 10, 20, or 30 years — crewed it. Several helped bring dragon boating to San Francisco in the first place, importing boats from Hong Kong in the 1990s to raise money for a local seniors' nonprofit.

Beyond racing, the festival ran zongzi-wrapping demonstrations, Chinese folk music performances, and history signage tracing the tradition back more than 2,000 years. The California Dragon Boat Association has its eye on a permanent home in the Candlestick Park redevelopment — if lasting sponsorship follows.

The festival was free to spectators. Lake Merced Park is at 1 Harding Road in the Sunset, about a mile from the Winston Drive Muni stop on the 57 line. If the association follows through, it'll be there next June too.