Festival «Hội làng Cơ Tu»

   For five days the mountains west of Đà Nẵng keep village time: you wrap sticky rice cakes shaped like buffalo horns, try a crossbow, wobble on stilts and pick up the beat of bronze gongs next to Cơ Tu artisans. It is the easiest way to trade the coast for the cool air of the Trường Sơn range.

   The programme is built on direct contact: the artisans do not perform to a hall, they work beside the visitors. What fills these five days:

• — the mini show «Chào Đông Giang», an introduction to Cơ Tu artisans through their music, dress and stories
• — a highland market of eight stalls: bánh sừng trâu cakes, cơm lam rice cooked in bamboo, meat grilled in bamboo tubes, wild bananas, weaving, basketry and souvenirs
• — hands-on sessions: wrapping bánh sừng trâu, a Cơ Tu language lesson, crossbow shooting, stilts and a gong circle
• — the show «Vũ điệu đại ngàn» with almost thirty performers from the community, in two chapters: «Nơi khởi nguồn của một vùng đất» with hát giao duyên courting songs, the tung tung da dá dance and gongs, and «Huyền thoại vùng đất thiêng» built on local legends
• — the night of 2 September — 75 artists on one stage: bài chòi folk singing, an excerpt from the tuồng opera «Hai Bà Trưng» about the Trưng sisters performed by Nhà hát Nghệ thuật Truyền thống Đà Nẵng, and «Vũ điệu đại ngàn»

   It suits families and anyone heading into the western highlands of Đà Nẵng for the first time: children get something to do with their hands, adults get people to talk to about how the community lives. If you are staying by the sea, one day in the mountains shows a side of the city the promenade never does.

   The resort itself sits between 400 and 800 metres above sea level: a cable car with nineteen cabins runs up to the Cầu Kính Ngọc Rồng glass bridge, and the grounds hold 25 waterfalls and limestone caves. The stage for the 2 September night is Làng văn hóa Cơ Tu, the culture village inside the resort, where Cơ Tu heritage is shown by the community itself rather than by a visiting troupe.

   The festival runs inside a paid resort: no separate festival ticket has been announced, so guests enter on the standard admission ticket, children are charged by height and those under one metre go free. The combo of admission, the cable car with the glass bridge and lunch carries a 50,000 VND discount on these five days. The organiser warns that holiday prices and schedules may be adjusted, and the evening programme on 2 September starts at 20:00, later than the usual closing time.

   Booking questions are answered at [email protected].

   If your Đà Nẵng has been all beach so far, these five days are the simple way to reach the other half of the map and spend a day inside a living tradition instead of watching it from outside.