Global Crafts Festival 2026 — Uniting Crafts, Connecting Communities

   Global Crafts Festival 2026 brings artisans from around the world to Hanoi from 12 to 17 November 2026 under the motto “Uniting Crafts · Connecting Communities”. The organisers expect more than 2,000 craftspeople from over 100 countries and territories across five continents. Vietnam contributes about 1,000 artisans – the country’s “Golden Hands” – with Bát Tràng ceramics, Vạn Phúc silk, Hạ Thái lacquerware and Đông Hồ folk paintings.

   The festival was originally announced for 28 August – 3 September 2026. The organisers have moved it to 12–17 November 2026; the scale and the venue are unchanged, and the detailed programme is still to be announced.

   The venue is the Vietnam Exposition Center (Trung tâm Triển lãm Việt Nam) in Đông Anh. The festival has its own site, globalcraftsfestival.com; the Facebook event is hosted by Ceylon Craft Communities Society Ltd (CCCSL, Sri Lanka).

   The programme is built around seven core activities:

• Crafts Exhibition – the main trade and display hall for international artisans
• Global Craft Award – an international craft competition
• Craft Workshops – hands-on learning with village artisans
• Craft Photography – a competition and gallery of images of artisans at work
• Art Installation – site-specific works made from traditional craft materials
• Performance – fashion shows, traditional music, storytelling and theatre
• Craft Tours – 16 heritage routes to Vietnamese craft villages

   The workshop track covers 12 Vietnamese crafts, from raw material to finished object (fees roughly USD 200–500):

• textile art of ethnic communities (silk and hemp fibres)
• natural silk production, from mulberry to thread
• fine art embroidery
• bamboo and rattan weaving, seagrass and water hyacinth
• traditional fan making
• mother-of-pearl inlay
• ceramics: wheel-throwing, coiling and slab building
• lacquerware and the “bó hom” technique
• conical hat making
• handmade dó bark paper
• wood carving
• silver filigree

   The Global Craft Award is open to artisans and designers aged 18 and over of any nationality, for work made largely by hand within the past five years, in three categories:

• Global Craft Heritage Award – preserving and conserving heritage
• Global Master Craftsmanship Award – talent and technical excellence
• Global Craft Design Award – creativity for contemporary life

   The top 50 finalists in each category are exhibited and judged during the festival days; the organisers will announce the detailed schedule of the judging and the awards ceremony. The 16 craft tours run before, during and after the festival: Bát Tràng and Phù Lãng pottery, Phú Vinh basketry, Nha Xá silk, the conical hats of làng Chuông, Kim Sơn sedge weaving, Mai Châu textiles (from USD 100).

   Artisans who wish to take part register through the festival website (a USD 50 registration fee, plus their own airfare and visa costs). Admission terms for general visitors have not been announced – contact the organisers at [email protected], +84 93 646 11 77.