Cape Breton Dragon Boat Festival to be revived in Sydney

The Cape Breton Dragon Boat Festival is back on this summer after the event was cancelled last year because of a lack of volunteers.

The new chair of the festival committee, Cyril MacDonald, 22, is more than optimistic about a new crop of volunteers that have come on board following a recruitment drive.

"They were willing to step up and take some ownership," he said.

The annual festival, which is held in Sydney Harbour, had raised a total of $450,000 for charity, including cancer research,in its eight previous years.

The festival will take place on Aug. 13, but beyond that MacDonald is not revealing much as plans for this year are still not complete.

"New ideas, new initiatives are coming," he said.

There are three beneficiaries from the event:the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation, Special Olympics Cape Breton and the Cape Breastoners Dragon Boat Team, which is made up of cancer survivors.