Village festival «Lộc Yên – Thạnh Bình 2026»

   For three days at the end of August an old village in the rural part of Đà Nẵng lives with its gates open: mossy stone walls and stone lanes between the gardens, courtyards of houses more than a century old, a country market of fifteen stalls, bánh xèo pancakes hissing on the pan and an art fireworks display on the opening night. If you have wanted to see a Vietnamese village from the inside rather than through a bus window, this is your chance.

   The theme of the fifth edition is «Lộc Yên – Miền quê hạnh phúc», «Loc Yen, a happy countryside». The opening is on the evening of 29 August in the yard of Nhà văn hóa thôn Lộc Yên, the village culture house, with a stage programme and fireworks. That same morning children sit down to the drawing contest «Không gian sắc màu tuổi thơ», and the best works then hang along the stone-paved lanes until 2 September.

   All three days the village keeps its own programme running:

• — The «Chợ quê Lộc Yên» country market: 15 stalls of farm produce, OCOP-certified goods and local start-up brands.
• — Workshops: crafting with mo cau, agarwood arrangements, frying bánh xèo, rolling thin rice sheets for mì lá noodles.
• — Fortune-telling from the Tale of Kiều and calligraphy in the yards of the century-old houses.
• — Folk games: đập niêu đất, smashing a clay pot blindfolded, đẩy gậy stick pushing and kéo co tug of war.
• — Acoustic sets in the evenings and «Hát cho nhau nghe», singing for one another.

   30 August is the busiest day. It opens with Lễ tế Tiền hiền, Hậu hiền, the rite in which the village thanks the people who founded and built it. Then comes the craft festival «Sản phẩm mỹ nghệ mo cau»: according to the announcement, 50 contestants from provinces across the country first present costumes sewn from mo cau, then have about an hour and a half to make handicrafts from it. Mo cau is the tough sheath that wraps the frond of the areca palm; it drops into the garden by itself and has long been turned into bowls and small household ware. At 14:00 the folk cooking contest «Hương sắc Lộc Yên» begins, and the evening belongs to the children stage programme «Giai điệu tuổi thần tiên».

   It suits families with children, who will have plenty to do with their hands; photographers after old houses, stone walls and early mist over the gardens; and anyone who wants a couple of days at village speed instead of city speed.

   Running alongside, and longer than the festival itself, is Food tour Lộc Yên, from 28 August through 2 September. The announcement also points to Làng Yên Retreat, with sketching on stone and wood and herbal foot baths, and to the Hang Dơi cave. No entrance price has been announced, and Thạnh Bình is farming country rather than the coastal side of Đà Nẵng, so plan the drive in advance.

   Five editions in, the village still keeps a rhythm many places have lost. The quietest day is 31 August: the country market, folk games and the display spaces, with no stage and nowhere to hurry.