The Muong Lo Culture and Tourism Festival is an annual event in Nghia Lo town, Yen Bai province. (Photo: baoyenbai.com.vn)

This year's Muong Lo Culture and Tourism Festival and Yen Bai Ethnic Culture Festival will open on Sunday, September 30, at Nghia Lo stadium, with a special art performance involving 2,000 local ethnic artists.

Themed "Muong Lo - Quintessence of the heritage region", the festival will include a street performance, a Mid-Autumn lantern parade, a cultural space of Yen Bai ethnic groups, a culinary contest of traditional dishes, a village fair, and paragliding.

Luong Manh Ha, Vice Chairman of Nghia Lo town’s People's Committee, said many culture, tourism, and sports activities will also be held in communes and wards.

“The festival will last a month. Several new activities introduced this year are culinary contests, folk game competitions, and demonstrations of making traditional musical instruments and writing ancient Thai ethnic minority characters,” said Mr. Ha.

The 2023 Shan Tuyet Tea Festival in Van Chan district, Yen Bai province.

The Shan Tuyet Tea Festival will take place in Van Chan district at the end of this month, with an art program combined with a Mong ethnic panpipe dancing performance, and a mountain climbing tournament called "Footsteps on the Clouds" to promote Ta Chi Nhu mountain, which has been called "Heaven on Earth".

According to Luong Thi Xuyen, Vice Chairwoman of the Mu Cang Chai district People's Committee, this year’s festival has many new features.

“We have asked agencies and communes to outline implementation plans. There will be an international activity – the Vietnam-Japan Culture Week – as part of activities to mark 50 years of bilateral diplomatic relations,” said Xuyen.

Le Thi Thanh Binh, Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, insisted that by organizing these festivals, the Yen Bai administration wants to connect tours and tourist routes with other localities in the Northwest to jointly tap their tourism potential and boost economic development.

“We’ve worked with departments, sectors, and localities to improve the quality of existing tourism products and create new ones to promote the strengths of each locality and avoid overlap,” Binh noted.

Majestic natural scenery, unique ethnic minority cultures, and festivals are advantages that can help Yen Bai reach its goal of welcoming 1.5 million visitors this year.

Over the past 8 months, nearly 1.3 million tourists have visited the province.