DRAGON FESTIVAL

Today: The Council of Asian- Pacific Minnesotans and the Asian American Renaissance invite you to "come experience Asia without the jet lag" at this year's Dragon Festival. Entertainment, music, food, folk arts and crafts, and a variety of demonstrations from the broad spectrum of Asian-Pacific cultures. There will be martial-arts demonstrations, Hawaiian dancing, taiko drumming and the Mongolian Circus Manduhai. A highlight of the festival is the Dragon Boat Races, a 2,400-year-old Chinese tradition with crews of 20 racing sleek, ornate 40-foot long boats to the cadenced rhythm of an on-board drummer. (9 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Lake Phalen, Wheelock Pkwy. and Phalen Dr., St. Paul. 952-5626. www.dragonfestival.org.)

BRIAN LEEHAN