Festival «Mừng Quốc khánh – Mừng mùa lúa mới Cơ Tu» (Co Tu new rice days)

   For five days a valley on the western edge of Da Nang runs on village time: sunrise over the mist at five in the morning, folk games and strength contests with the village lads through the day, and an evening fire lit by the village elder. Two reasons come together here, National Day on 2 September and the arrival of the new rice, and you get to live inside the celebration rather than watch it from the sidelines.

   Every day follows the same shape and is built around an overnight stay: check-in at 14:00 followed by a dip in the forest stream, Co Tu folk games and challenges with the village lads twice a day, from 08:00 to 11:00 and from 16:00 to 17:00, an evening BBQ with an open-air film from 17:30, then sunrise in the valley from 05:00 and a morning trek along the «Rừng ơi thở đi» route from 08:00. What changes is the night programme.

   Here is how the evenings differ:

• — 1 September, 18:30 to 20:00, is the Lễ mừng lúa mới itself, the new rice ceremony the whole run is built around, with fire calling alongside the village elder and folk games;
• — 29 and 31 August: fire calling with the elder and múa tung tung da dá, the traditional Co Tu dance;
• — 30 August: a music night and a free-form campfire with no script;
• — 2 September: a music night for National Day and the new harvest, plus a craft workshop from 15:30 that afternoon;
• — all five days: a workshop on highland delicacies and traditional Co Tu brocade weaving.

   The format suits families with children and groups of friends willing to sleep in the village. Kids get the stream, the games and the fire; adults get something a city cannot sell, an evening run by the people who live there, with the village elder in the circle rather than a staged act on a platform.

   The Co Tu are one of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups. The 2019 census counted 74,173 of them nationwide, most of them in Quảng Nam and Huế, while the community inside Da Nang itself is small. A new rice celebration held within the city limits is therefore not something that comes round every season.

   The organisers have announced one concession, and only for 1 September: visitors who arrive in traditional Co Tu dress that day get free gate entry. Gate prices and overnight rates for the other days were not published, so check with the village before you set off.

   Five days in the hills turn the new rice season from a line in a guidebook into a fire, a gong and a pair of hands at the loom right in front of you. Give it a full night rather than an afternoon, and you will see the difference.