From all over the villages, the villagers put on the most beautiful dresses, enthusiastically joining the terraced fields Festival - a festival that honors the golden season and the cultural beauty of the land of thousands of clouds.
Unique Mountain terraced Village Festival
Located at an altitude of more than 1,000m above sea level, the hills are cool all year round, with temperatures ranging from 23 - 28°C. In the brilliant yellow season picture, the 2025 Mien Doi Lan terraced Village Festival, held on October 25 and 26, has become a unique cultural destination for the Tay Bac Muong people. This is the second festival season, following the success of 2024, bringing visitors both familiar and new experiences.
The highlight of the festival is the majestic beauty of more than 400 hectares of terraced fields in the Southern Hill when the rice is golden ripe. The terraced fields on the hillsides, interspersed with primeval forests and white foam waterfalls, create a picture of nature that is both majestic and poetic. That beauty is the crystallization of the diligent labor of many generations - a testament to the creativity and indomitable will of the Muong people here.
Not only admiring the scenery, visitors can also immerse themselves in the typical cultural space of the Muong people. The New Rice Festival (rice Festival) was solemnly recreated, with a procession and a ceremony to offer offer offerings to thank ancestors and gods for blessing the bumper harvest.
People's Artist Bui Van Minh - the person in charge of the ceremony said that according to Muong customs, after rice is brought home, the rice that is cooked must be offered to the ancestors first, then eaten. This is one of the most important spiritual activities of the Muong people held on the first day of the Mountain terraced fields Festival.
The hillside is also proud to preserve the ancient rice variety of the eggs Khe sticky rice (in Muong language, goesng xe) - a precious sticky rice that is considered a treasure of the region. Short, round, sticky rice, Trung Khe rice is used by the Muong people in important ceremonies and weddings. This type of rice is especially suitable for the climate and cold water of the terraced fields of the Southern Hill, creating a rice product with high nutritional value. In 2023, Trung Khe sticky rice was recognized as a 3-star OCOP - the pride of Muong land.
At this festival, the Muong ethnic people also brought special agricultural products recognized as OCOP by craft villages, cooperatives, and production facilities to introduce and sell to tourists.
Tourist Truong Diep Lan (Hanoi) shared that this was her first time attending the Mountain terraced fields Festival, but the deepest impression was the Muong gong performance by 200 artisans on Lam Xoi hill. The resounding sound in the middle of the mountains and forests creates a sacred atmosphere, imbued with the cultural identity and beliefs of the Muong people.
Not only attracted by the sound of Muong gongs, Ms. Lan was also moved by the sincerity and hospitality of the people here.
"The Muong people welcomed visitors with a gentle smile, invited a cup of wine to be fragrant, told the story of the fields and crops as if telling their own life" - Ms. Lan shared.
Cultural preservation, sustainable tourism development
According to the People's Committee of Thuong Coc commune, the maintenance and development of the Mountain terraced Rural Festival not only aims to honor natural and cultural heritage, but also contributes to the implementation of socio-economic development goals of ethnic minority areas. The festival helps promote agricultural products, expand consumption markets, create more jobs and increase income for people.
At the same time, the event also contributes to calling for investment and effectively exploiting the potential of community tourism and eco-tourism in the locality.
Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong - Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Tre Nguon Business, said: "To serve this year's festival, Tre Nguon has completed all infrastructure including a restaurant area with a capacity of 200 guests, a swimming pool, a community house and a single boarding house with a total capacity of 50 guests/night".
In addition, in the commune, there is Cay Thong homestay and households in the commune have begun to form a satellite homestay chain, ready to serve tourists during the festival. The participation of private enterprises in developing tourism infrastructure is a positive signal for the locality's sustainable direction.
According to Mr. Bui Van Duong - Chairman of Thuong Coc Commune People's Committee, the festival is an opportunity to promote the image, connect tourists inside and outside the province, aiming to make tourism a spearhead economic sector. The commune strives to build Thuong Coc into a "identity - Safety - Friendliness" destination on the Phu Tho tourism map.
"Thuong Coc is gradually forming a community tourism model based on Muong identity, associated with ecological agriculture, creating sustainable livelihoods for people" - Mr. Duong emphasized.
Although it only takes place for two days, the echoes of the Mountain Stepsfield Festival still resound like the long gong sound in the mountains and forests, arousing pride in a Muong land rich in identity and changing day by day.
