Taunggyi Balloon Festival Dates
Planning on going to Taunggyi Balloon Festival this year? Great! Go!
Costing $12 to get there and back in an old open pick up truck stuffed to the brim with people and winding around mountain roads. It was one of the highlights of my time in Myanmar and a generally awesome night!. For a more indepth review about the Taunggyi Festival, check out my Taunggyi Balloon Festival blog post here, for dates for this years Taunggyi Balloon Festival, keep reading….
edit: The 2017 dates for Taunggyi Balloon Festival are 26th October – 3rd November 2017 to coincide with the November full moon. This has been confirmed from credible locals in the area, the Novotel at Inle Lake and Aythaya Vineyard in Taunggyi.
The 2016 dates for Taunggyi Balloon Festival have been confirmed as 6th November – 14th November 2016 (confirmation has come directly from the Novotel Inle Lake and the Aythaya Vineyard in Taunggyi) to coincide with the first full moon after Buddhist lent ends. The dates for Taunggyi Balloon Festival 2017 are as yet unannounced, however as soon as they are out I will update this page.
The festival starts in the morning and will carry on until the very early hours the next morning, with no official closing time.
For balloons with fireworks, head to the festival in the evening, for a more child-friendly time, stick to the day events.
There is also a fun fair with rides and stalls and plenty of food and drink stalls throughout the event.
Here is the programme of events for the week so you can plan your Taunggyi stay accordingly and not miss out.
November 2nd and 3rd will likely be the busiest, with the final night getting very heavily and sometimes dangerously crowded.
26.10.2017
Day 1 is usually very busy with an opening ceremony in the evening.
– Weaving competition (Matho Thingan)
– Hot air balloon competition (day time competition)
(The form of pagodas, ducks, dragons or even elephants)
– Hot air balloon competition (night time competition)
27.10.2017
– Weaving competition (Matho Thingan)
– Hot air balloon competition (day time competition)
(The form of pagodas, ducks, dragons or even elephants)
– Hot air balloon competition (night time competition)
28.10.2017
– Weaving competition (Matho Thingan)
– Hot air balloon competition (day time competition)
(The form of pagodas, ducks, dragons or even elephants)
– Hot air balloon competition (night time competition)
29.10.2017
– Weaving competition (Matho Thingan)
– Hot air balloon competition (day & night time competition)
30.10.2017
– Weaving competition (Matho Thingan)
– Hot air balloon competition (day & night time competition)
31.10.2017
– Weaving competition (Matho Thingan)
– Hot air balloon competition (day & night time competition)
01.11.2017
– Weaving competition (Matho Thingan)
– Hot air balloon competition (day & night time competition)
02.11.2017
– Weaving competition
– Hot air balloon competition (day & night time)
– Kathine Procession (this is a procession along the streets of Taungggi)
03.11.2017
– The prize winning robe is then offered to lord Buddha with great ceremony at the
down of the full moon day of Tazaungmone
– Hot air balloon competition (day & night time)
For a sneaky peak into the kind of thing to expect when you are at the Taunggyi balloon festival, I took some video footage [below] of one of the earlier balloons being set up and sent into the sky, plus the proceeding celebration once it had gone up safely and not fallen back down to earth. This was at the beginning of the night and so at this point it wasn’t too crowded and we were able to get front row seats to the action. A few hours later, around midnight, it was almost impossible to get onto the balloon field due to the amount of people there!
For a more indepth review about the Taunggyi Festival, check out my other blog post here
