Colorado State University’s Asian Pacific American Cultural Center (APACC) will be at the annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival July 27-28.

The APACC will have a booth at the event in Sloan’s Lake Park in Denver. While APACC will not be racing a boat in this year’s festival, the group will host a variety of giveaways and other activities. APACC will be there in partnership with CSU Admissions and the Alumni Association.

“It’s a great chance to be a part of the community,” APACC Director JoAnn Cornell said. “We’ll have alumni volunteers staffing the booth, and it’s a great way to represent CSU.”

Billed as the nation’s largest dragon boat festival, the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is an annual celebration of Asian and Asian-American heritage, featuring multiple vendors as well as stages featuring contemporary and traditional cultural performances. Last year’s two-day event featured approximately 120,000 attendees and 180 performers and vendors.

APACC has been a semi-regular part of the festival since 2014. In 2015, CSU students took third place overall in the 250-meter race in the Hong Kong Style Division. Cornell said they are working to form a racing team for next year’s event.

Established in 1984, APACC works to make CSU a safe and supportive space for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Asian American (including Southeast Asian, Desi, adopted, mixed race) students and other historically marginalized communities. The center is focused on building community, working to remove barriers and providing access to resources to support students in finding fulfillment and success while at CSU and beyond.

CSU student Sarah DeLaet, a peer mentor/leadership coordinator with APACC, said she is looking forward to participating this year’s festival and encouraged students and alumni to stop by the booth.

“There’s a lot of cool booths and food stands that we’re looking forward to checking out,” she said.