If you time a trip to Vietnam's Central Highlands for early November, you get two spectacles for the price of one: hillsides blanketed in yellow wild sunflowers, and one of the loudest, proudest cultural gatherings in the country. Gia Lai province has announced the Gong Festival and Wild Sunflower – Chư Đang Ya Volcano Week 2026, running from October 30 to November 8 across Pleiku Ward, Biển Hồ Commune and nearby areas.
The scale is serious. Delegations from 10 provinces and cities will join 29 gong-performing groups from Gia Lai itself, bringing roughly 1,487 artisans together — including 1,207 performers from the province's Bahnar, Jrai, H'rê, Chăm Hroi and Ê Đê communities. Gongs aren't a tourist prop here; they sit at the heart of ritual and community life for these groups, and UNESCO recognised the Space of Gong Culture in the Central Highlands on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list back in 2005.
The programme is packed. The opening days (October 30 to November 1) centre on Biển Hồ Commune, with a community tourism launch in Ia Nueng Village, the Gia Lai City Trail – Dream of the Great Forest running race, and traditional music performances. Visitors can watch a re-enactment of the ceremony held when a new communal house is finished, browse a local products market, and see an exhibition on Gia Lai's gong cultural space in Ia Gri Village.
The centrepiece comes on the evenings around it: a street festival of gongs and ethnic cultural displays winds through Pleiku, Diên Hồng and Hội Phú wards on November 6, and the gong gala takes over Đại Đoàn Kết Square at 8pm on November 7, with live TV coverage. From November 6 to 8, expect cultural exchanges, food displays, tourism products, agricultural specialities and coffee — this is robusta country, after all — plus artefacts on show at Pleiku Museum. A photography and video competition running October to December adds an excuse to linger.
The backdrop is half the appeal. Chư Đang Ya is an extinct volcano rising about 500 metres above sea level, and every November its slopes and surrounding roads turn gold as wild sunflowers bloom. It was named among Vietnam's ten most attractive destinations and the world's ten most beautiful volcanic craters in 2018. The Wild Sunflower week has been held around Ia Gri Village since 2017, championing both the scenery and the Jrai communities who live there.
For travellers, this is a rare window to see Central Highland culture at full volume rather than as a staged show for tour buses. Flights into Pleiku, a few days split between town and the volcano's villages, and a camera with plenty of memory card space will do it. Just book accommodation early — November is when the whole province shows off.
