On March 20-22, the Pho Festival 2026 with the theme "Vietnamese Pho - Living Heritage in the Heart of the Era" is held at Thien Truong pedestrian street (Ninh Binh province) to honor, preserve and spread the value of folk knowledge heritage Pho Viet - a unique symbol of Vietnamese culinary culture.
The Pho Festival is held annually since 2024, gathering artisans, chefs, craft villages and typical culinary brands nationwide. The selection of Ninh Binh as the venue for this year's event contributes to expanding the space to promote Vietnamese pho associated with cultural and natural heritage values, while creating a highlight connecting tourism and cuisine in the region.
Through a series of cultural, culinary and heritage experience activities, Pho Festival 2026 contributes to promoting the image of Vietnamese cuisine to the general public in the country and international friends. The event also promotes the process of building a national dossier on Vietnamese pho, aiming to propose UNESCO to include it in the list of representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This is also a step towards developing the cultural industry in the culinary field, enhancing Vietnam's cultural position in the international arena.
Within the framework of the festival, many rich activities take place. Before the event is the program "Returning to Van Cu village communal house - Opening heritage pages", to show gratitude to the origin of the pho craft. Visitors can visit the craft village, interact with artisans, learn about the process of making pho cakes, cooking pho in traditional methods and participate in incense offering rituals at Van Cu Temple.
After the opening ceremony, experiential spaces are open to serve tourists. At the "Pho Roots" space, artisans directly process Nam Dinh beef pho and Hanoi chicken pho in traditional methods. Besides, there are activities such as "Ba Mien Pho Rolls", art program "Pho Connect" and seminar "We Love Pho - Heritage Bridge and Global Connection Mission".
The festival also organizes many experiential spaces such as "Pho Roots", "Stories from Rice Grains - Journey of Vietnamese culinary heritage", "Memory Box - Heritage Frame" and "Pho Ba Mien". The spaces recreate the development journey of pho from traditional to modern, associated with the unique cultural values of the pho profession.
In which, the space "Pho Roots" is inspired by the Be market of ancient Nam Dinh, recreating the context of the birth of pho in daily life. The space "Stories from Rice Grains" depicts the role of rice grains in the wet rice civilization, thereby honoring pho as a typical representative of the quintessence of Vietnamese cuisine. "Box of Memories - Frame of Heritage" evokes the image of ancient pho shops, while "Pho Ba Mien" expresses the unique culinary cultural nuances of the North - Central - South.
Pho Festival 2026 is expected to become a typical national cultural - tourism - culinary event, contributing to the implementation of Resolution No. 80-NQ/TW of the Politburo on the development of Vietnamese culture. Thereby, continuing to spread the value of Vietnamese pho, affirming the role of cuisine in the cultural industrial ecosystem and enhancing Vietnam's position on the world culinary map.
