Festival «Văn hóa dân tộc Cadong 2026» (Cadong Ethnic Culture Day)

   A morning in the mountains, the gongs of the highlands ringing in front of the village house, and the whole village setting out to find its water source the way the ancestors did. In Long Son hamlet, in the mountains southwest of Da Nang, the Cadong people open their festival so that you see their way of life not on a built stage but through the village's own rituals, food and contests.

   The centrepiece is the re-enactment of the rite "Đi tìm nguồn nước và cúng máng nước" (searching for the water source and worshipping the water trough). For the Cadong, a local group of the Xo Dang (Xơ Đăng) ethnic group, the water source is tied to the life of the village, and the rite is how the community keeps its bond with nature and hands its values down the generations. Then come song and dance, drum and gong performances and contests in slingshot and crossbow shooting and tug-of-war between the four hamlets of Long Son, Tra Son, Tra Giang and Dong Trau.

   Another part worth waiting for is the cooking contest and the display of local farm produce: dishes and mountain products show the everyday life of the Cadong in Tra My.

   The festival suits anyone who wants to see Da Nang from an angle other than beach and city, lovers of indigenous culture and unstaged photographs. Tra My is roughly 100 km from the coast, so plan a full day; in return you get a real village festival rather than a show for tourists.

   If you have ever wanted to hear gongs in the place they come from, give this day to Long Son.