This is the first time Ca Mau province will host a provincial-level Heritage Culture Day and Hot Air Balloon Festival.

With the theme of “Convergence of cultural identities at the southernmost place of the Fatherland”, the event will take place from August 28 to September 1, 2026, at Hung Vuong Square (Bac Lieu ward) and several other locations across the province.

This will be one of Ca Mau’s major cultural, tourism, trade, and investment promotion series of events in 2026, aimed at promoting the image of Vietnam’s southernmost region while introducing new tourism products for residents and visitors during the National Day holiday on September 2.

Programme infographic for the 2026 Ca Mau Heritage Culture Day and Hot Air Balloon Festival. (Photo: Department of Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City)

A major highlight will be the hot air balloon festival, featuring 34 colourful balloons, including tethered balloons, balloons for visitor experiences, ground-display balloons, and a nighttime balloon light show.

Besides, the Heritage Culture Day will also bring together a wide range of representative intangible cultural heritage practices from different regions of the country.

According to the plan, localities with UNESCO-recognised heritage will introduce, display, and perform distinctive art forms such as Hue Royal Court Music, Bac Ninh’s Quan Ho Folk Song, the Cultural Space of the Central Highlands Gongs, and Southern Don Ca Tai Tu, along with many other forms of cultural heritage.

The programme will also feature a space promoting the intangible cultural heritage of salt making, a trade fair, food and OCOP product displays, tourism destination survey programmes, the 2026 Ca Mau Investment Promotion Conference, and a Conference Reviewing Five years of the Tourism Development Cooperation programme between Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong Delta localities for the 2020-2025 period, while signing a tourism development cooperation plan for 2026-2030.

Ca Mau provincial leaders have asked relevant departments, agencies, and units to urgently complete preparations to ensure the activities are held on schedule, safely and effectively, and leave a strong impression on residents and tourists.

According to Deputy Director of the Ca Mau Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ly Vy Trieu Duong, bringing together cultural heritage from different regions in a single space would offer visitors a new experience while helping spread the values of Vietnamese cultural heritage.

Through the series of events, Ca Mau aims to further promote its image as “Ca Mau - the southernmost point of the Fatherland” and introduce its distinctive cultural values, tourism products and investment potential, and gradually develop the Heritage Culture Day and Hot Air Balloon Festival into an annual cultural and tourism event for the Mekong Delta region.

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