Sarawak Regatta
The Sarawak Regatta – Kuching Waterfront Festival 2018 will be held from Oct 26 to Nov 4, 2018 at Kuching Waterfront.
The regatta itself will take place along the 1.3 km of the Sarawak River along the Kuching Waterfront where the event will be surrounded by exciting local attractions like food and souvenir markets, cultural stage performances and water sports.
This annual event is a showcase of long boat races with participation from various government agencies, private sectors and also participants from villages and longhouses throughout Sarawak as well as boaters from neighbouring countries of Indonesia and Brunei.
The coveted grand prize of the event is the “Raja Sungai” or King of the River title, with teams of 30 paddlers cutting through the Sarawak River at breakneck speeds to see who will win the crown.
The Sarawak Regatta has been a significant annual event since 1872 during the era of James Brooke, when it was used as a method of stopping racial wars and headhunting through sportsmanship, using boat races to prove power and strength of the different longhouses folks instead of conducting battles among themselves.
