(TITC) - Wild Sunflower Week - Chu Dang Ya Extinct Volcano 2022 in the Central Highlands Province of Gia Lai, will take place from 11th to 17th November in Chu Pah District, northwest of Gia Lai Province. It is a major cultural - tourism festival, and this year's event also features many sports with beautiful routes around attractive landscapes.
Wild Sunflower season in Gia Lai (Photo: Vietsense)
The festival aims to honour the land, the people, and the cultural values of the ethnic groups in Chu Pah District and help introduce and promote the attractions of Chu Pah – Gia Lai tourism. The festival is organised in Ia Gri Village, volcanic area and a number of locations in 2 communes of Chu Dang Ya and Nghia Hung.
Wild Sunflower Week - Chu Dang Ya Extinct Volcano promises to bring a colourful folk feast of people in the Central Highlands. Many activities to be re-enacted: traditional ceremonies, folk games, gong performances, traditional crafts with bold cultural colours of indigenous residents will be performed at the event.
Artisans from 14 communes and towns in Chu Pah District will gather together and show visitors the art of knitting, sculpting, brocade weaving, making ethnic musical instruments, and items for the daily life and production of the Jrai and Bahnar ethnic groups. Specifically, the “New Rice Celebration” will show people and visitors one of the largest, most important agricultural rituals of the inhabitants of Jrai. The celebration will be re-enacted at the communal house (Nha Rong) yard of Ia Gri Village, at the foot of Chu Dang Ya Extinct Volcano, Chu Dang Ya Commune on 12th November.
The artisans of Chu Pah District bring to the festival cultural colours and traditional crafts (Photo: Hoang Ngoc)
Typical agricultural and rural products, OCOP certified from the safe farmers market, will be displayed at the foot of the communal house in Ia Gri village for foodie visitors who are eager to explore the plateau through cuisine.
A mini marathon around famous landscapes, conquering Chu Dang Ya Peak, taking a paragliding to see the panorama of nature from above or trek to the majestic Chu Nam Peak to see the entire volcano covered in yellow are annual activities that attract visitors the most. At the Wild Sunflower Week - Chu Dang Ya Extinct Volcano this year, sport lovers from local and across the country will live in the festive atmosphere while participating in competitions or having abundant memorable experiences in the festival.
In addition, there are series of traditional sports that take place such as pushing sticks, walking on stilts, tug-of-war, sack jumping…,
The competition "Conquering Chu Dang Ya Peak" will be held with the distance of more than 2 km from the foot to the top of the mountain. The estimated time to conquer is 15-20 minutes, suitable for the health of many participants. The conquest is expected to start at 9am, take place 3 times in 3 key days of the festival from 11th to 13th November.
At Wild Sunflower Week - Chu Dang Ya Extinct Volcano 2022, visitors will experience paragliding under instructions of pilots (Photo: Van Ngoc)
In order to bring its own uniqueness to the festival, Son Tra Paragliding Club will have fly performances to serve people and visitors with motorised and non-motorised paragliding in 2 days, 11th and 12th November. Besides performances, paragliding under instructions of pilots will be offered for visitors. Visitors can sign up to experience paragliding with experienced pilots, see the volcano crater from above, and enjoy the unique natural panorama of the festival season.
Another typical sport at the festival is trekking to conquer the Chu Nam Peak. This is a sport that requires strength and endurance climbing skills and terrain mastery with the close instructions from professional guides.
The Chu Dang Ya Extinct Volcano is around 30km from Pleiku and 20km from the famous Bien Ho tourism site. The funnel-shaped crater and volcanic ash mixed with red basalt soil are still evident today.
Chu Dang Ya was voted by the Vietnam Records Association, Vietkings, as No.1 in the Top 10 most attractive destinations in Gia Lai in 2017. It is more fascinating at the time when wild sunflowers start to bloom, from November to December.
Tourism Information Technology Center