Festival «Thành Tuyên 2026»

   Every autumn the quiet mountain town of Tuyên Quang turns into a city of light: house-sized glowing lanterns sway above the crowd and drift along the streets. This is how the northern province celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival (Tết Trung Thu) — on a scale you will not find anywhere else in Vietnam. The «Thành Tuyên» festival long ago outgrew the children's lantern holiday to become one of the country's most spectacular lantern festivals.

   In brief:

• hundreds of giant lantern models — fairy-tale heroes, characters from legends, sacred animals and symbols of Vietnamese culture;
• a carnival lantern parade through the town centre and a contest for the best models;
• the central Night of the Full Moon — the «Lung linh đêm hội trăng rằm» programme;
• an OCOP crafts and produce fair with agro-tourism routes around nearby villages;
• a food court of local cuisine and a beer festival;
• the Tuyên Quang Marathon 2026;
• an off-road vehicle show.

   The lanterns are the real draw. For months every neighbourhood, school and village builds its own towering frame, and once darkness falls these glowing dragons, phoenixes and storybook heroes roll out into the streets to drums and live music. By day the town lives on fairs and sport; after dark it becomes one huge open-air stage. There is no end of things to photograph — close-ups of the paper giants, children's faces lit by handheld lanterns, wide views of the night procession. And do try the street food and the produce of the surrounding farms, a reason in itself for food lovers to make the trip.

   Most people come as a family: fairy-tale figures and the parade for the children, fairs, local food and evening lights for the grown-ups. Culture lovers and photographers will find their subject here, and travellers get a solid reason to turn off the usual route and head north. One thing worth knowing: this is the Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival, yet only in Tuyên Quang does it carry a unique tradition — giant lantern models you will not see anywhere else in Vietnam.

   Come as the full moon rises over Tuyên Quang, and stay until the very last lantern.