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Tens of thousands of spectators packed the riverside in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Sunday to watch the annual dragon boat race – the centerpiece of Cambodia’s three-day Songkran festival, which was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Around 300 boats competed, with crews wearing bright T-shirts and paddling brightly coloured oars into the Tonle Sap River in a quest for victory, with the Royal Palace behind them.
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, Prime Minister Hun Manet, his father Hun Sen and senior government officials witnessed the start of the annual event, and the canoe crossed the finish line smoothly under the urging of the crowd.
The three-day festival, which runs until Tuesday, will include concerts, a parade of colorful neon-lit floats, each representing a government department, and fireworks.
“I’m glad we can come together to celebrate the Water Festival,” rower Hom Phos, 38, told AFP.
“I’m excited because it’s our national holiday.”
The festival was last held in 2019 before being suspended due to the pandemic.
“During the coronavirus pandemic, everyone was worried and we were unhappy. But now we are happy again,” rower Yorn Vorn, 45, told AFP.
The festival marks the end of the rainy season, when the Tonle Sap River, which joins the Mekong in front of the Royal Palace, flows upstream.
The health department also expects to distribute 80,000 condoms and 20,000 packets of lubricant free of charge to boaters and tourists during the festival to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS prevention.
On the final day of the festival in 2010, celebrations turned deadly when panic over rumors that the bridge was about to collapse led to a stampede on an overcrowded bridge, killing more than 350 people.
Then-Prime Minister Hun Sen called the disaster Cambodia’s worst tragedy since the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975 to 1979, when up to a quarter of the population died.
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