Thmor Kor is just one of a number of villages that had begun preparations for the Water Festival boat races, which were set to begin in Phnom Penh on November 24. The events were called off last month — the fourth time since 2010, when a stampede killed 353 people — with a government directive citing low water levels due to drought. “This year, we prepared the documents and the team in order to join the festival, but when we found out there was no boat race, we separated,” Oung Chamreun, one of the leaders of the village boat committee, said. This time last year, the boat racers — all volunteers — spent their days together, training for the race and building morale. But now they have instead returned to their jobs, many of them in the fields. “It was cancelled this year again, so we all went back to work: as farmers, construction workers, garment workers, students and so on,” said Chen Vanly, one of the boatmen. Chamreun discovered the events were cancelled on Facebook, negating weeks of initial preparation and two days of race training.