BOSTON -- Thousands of onlookers lined the Charles River on Sunday for the city’s annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival.

Teams of paddlers from New York and Canada traveled to Boston for the race, which pitted competitors against one another in wooden row boats carved with dragon heads and painted with colorful decorations. This year, 32 teams took part in the race, which spans the area between JFK Street and the Western Avenue bridge.

State police estimate that 20,000 people turned out for this year’s festival. The event is traditionally held on the fifth day of the fifth moon on the lunar calendar and it commemorates a Chinese poet who cast himself into a river while living in exile about 2,000 years ago.

The first dragon boat festival was held in Boston 30 years ago and the event has since grown into the largest Asian American celebration in New England, according to organizers. Activities at this year’s festival included a Chinese yo-yo demonstration, Japanese drumming and a Korean Korean Taekwon-do demonstration.