Tea festival «Festival Trà Quốc tế - Thái Nguyên 2026» (International Tea Festival)

   Thái Nguyên calls itself the first tea land of Vietnam, and every few years it backs the claim with a nine-day festival that draws tea farms, tasters and buyers from around the world. The 2026 edition runs from 30 October to 7 November and marks the 195th anniversary of the province.

   The opening ceremony takes place on the evening of 30 October at Võ Nguyên Giáp Square, broadcast live on VTV and the provincial TN channel. The organisers have not yet announced the exact starting time, and entry terms have not been published either; the square is open public space, so the ceremony is visible from anywhere on it. The programme is spread across all nine days and across the city and the tea districts of the province.

   The main things on the programme:

   — an international tea forum, «Từ di sản Trà đến kinh tế Trà toàn cầu» — from tea heritage to the global tea economy;
   — tea exhibition spaces where provincial farms show their varieties and brewing methods;
   — the Vietnam Master Tea competition for tea masters;
   — a food court and an investment promotion programme;
   — street art programmes in the city centre;
   — the «Thái Nguyên xanh» golf tournament;
   — tea tastings on the plantations themselves, in the province's main tea districts.

   This one is worth the trip if you want to see tea before it reaches the cup: not a souvenir-shop display but hillsides in even rows of bushes, pickers with baskets on their backs, and farms where the leaf is still rolled by hand. Thái Nguyên lies about eighty kilometres north of Hanoi — the closest tea province to the capital, a couple of hours by road.

   Thái Nguyên tea holds the place in Vietnam that Darjeeling holds in India. The local Tân Cương variety is known nationwide, and the line «Thái Nguyên đệ nhất danh trà» — Thái Nguyên, first name in tea — stands on the hillsides along the road. The province has lived on this for over a century, and the festival is how it shows itself beyond the domestic market.

   The organiser is the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thái Nguyên province. The day-by-day schedule is still being finalised and some venues will be announced closer to the dates, so check the department's official site before you travel.

   Nine days, dozens of farms and a whole province turning into one long tea table for a week. If you are in northern Vietnam in late October, this is a good reason to leave the Hanoi route.