Mường Lò Festival 2026: 2,026 dancers, one giant Xòe circle in Vietnam's northwest

A crowd of 2,026 people danced together in Vietnam's northwest this week, and the number was no accident. The mass Xòe performance opened the Mường Lò Culture and Tourism Festival 2026 in Lào Cai province, timed to 2026 and staged as a symbol of solidarity around a dance form the world now officially treasures.

The festival runs from October 15 to 21 and marks five years since UNESCO inscribed the Xòe dance of the Thái people on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The opening show, titled Thái Xòe – A Circle of Love, blended traditional elements with contemporary staging, with the giant communal circle as its centrepiece.

This is not a small village fair. The opening drew Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Thị Thanh Trà plus ambassadors from Belarus, Laos and India, and Lào Cai's leadership used the platform to make a point: culture is the province's engine for sustainable tourism, with artisans supported, traditions passed to younger generations and locals earning a living from their heritage rather than around it.

Beyond the dance, the week packs in plenty for visitors. There's a street parade, a Northwest Tourism Fair, an exhibition of regional culture, a photo showcase of Lào Cai tourism, and a space promoting OCOP products — Vietnam's "One Commune, One Product" scheme for local specialities. Satellite events stretch across the province: the Lào Cai Shan Tuyết Tea Festival celebrating the region's ancient tea trees, a paragliding event called Flying over the Golden Season in Tú Lệ Commune (a rice-terrace valley that is spectacular in autumn), plus folk festivals, traditional sports, agricultural tours and community-based tourism experiences in local hamlets.

Mường Lò itself is a broad valley in Văn Bàn district, home to Thái, H'Mông and other ethnic communities, and it remains far less visited than Sapa further north. The festival is a rare chance to see the region's culture at full volume — and, if the province gets its way, a taste of a more community-rooted kind of tourism in Vietnam's northwest.