Cambodians mark first Water Festival in four years
Traditional boat races began in the Cambodian capital on Wednesday, as the normally annual Water Festival was celebrated for the first time since 2010.
Early in the day, competitors in their team colours assembled on the banks of the Tonle Sap River. By midday, when the first horn sounded, thousands of onlookers lined the banks to cheer on the teams as they raced toward the finish line in front of the Royal Palace.
Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni delivered a speech on Wednesday afternoon to officially open the festival, which lasts for three days and features as many as 80 men in each of the ornately painted longboats.
The festival marks the end of the rainy season, as well as the annual reversal in the flow of the Tonle Sap river as waters are pushed up it from the monsoon-swollen Mekong River.
The 2010 festival was marred by the deaths of 353 people in a stampede on the last night, and the event was cancelled due to floods in 2011 and 2013 and also following the death of King Norodom Sihanouk in 2012.
Although the crowds appeared thinner on Wednesday, the mood was upbeat.
Police officials manned large barricades around the riverside area in order to control the crowds and keep traffic at bay.
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