Festivals in Nha Trang & Cam Ranh 2027: What to See & When to Go

Most guides still say the Nha Trang Sea Festival takes place every two years in June. It was held in July 2026, and for 2027 the province has proposed spreading it across all four seasons, with no dates fixed yet, while the older temple festivals move to new dates with the lunar calendar. Below are the festivals in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang that deserve a place in a 2027 trip, with expected dates, what happens at each and how to attend.

Why Festival Dates Here Shift Every Year

Festival dates in Khanh Hoa follow three different calendars. The temple and fishing festivals use the Vietnamese lunar calendar, whose new year falls on 6 February in 2027, eleven days earlier than in 2026. Every lunar festival moves forward by about the same amount, so the Po Nagar festival that opened on 6 May 2026 is expected on 26 April 2027.

The Cham community keeps its own calendar for Kate, its largest festival, which is why that date is announced locally only a few months ahead. Civic events such as the Sea Festival and the fireworks nights are fixed by the provincial government, often quite late.

The dates below are the expected ones for 2027, worked out from the lunar calendar and from when each event was held in 2026. Organisers confirm the programme closer to the time. Check before booking flights around a single day.

Festival Calendar for 2027

Which Festival Suits Your Trip

With eight dates to choose from, it helps to decide what kind of day you want. The festivals in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang fall into three groups, and each suits a different kind of trip.

• For ritual and atmosphere: Po Nagar in late April, with Am Chua three weeks earlier for a smaller, rural version of the same worship
• For spectacle and nightlife: any Sea Festival events confirmed for 2027, and the New Year’s Eve countdown on April 2 Square
• For something few visitors see: a Cau Ngu boat procession at dawn in March or April, or Kate at Po Klong Garai in the autumn

The weather differs between the three groups as well. April is dry and hot, with the calmest sea of the year, which makes the temple festivals easy to combine with beach days. June and July are hotter still and busy with domestic holidaymakers.

Kate falls in the wet months for Nha Trang, but Phan Rang is the driest corner of Vietnam and often stays clear when the city is under cloud.

Read more: Best Time to Visit Nha Trang 2026: Weather, Seasons & Travel Tips

Traditional Festivals on the Lunar Calendar

The four oldest festivals in the province all honour a protector: a mother goddess, the whale that guards fishermen, or a woman admiral. They are religious events first, and visitors are welcome at all of them.

Po Nagar Tower Festival

The Po Nagar Tower Festival is the largest traditional festival in Khanh Hoa. It honours Thien Y A Na, known to the Cham as Po Inu Nagar, the mother goddess credited with teaching people to grow rice and weave. It takes place at the Po Nagar Cham Towers, brick temples from the 8th to 13th centuries on a hill above the Cai River.

The festival runs from the 20th to the 23rd day of the third lunar month, which in 2027 is expected to be 26 to 29 April. It opens with the changing of the goddess’s robes, when her statue is bathed in scented water and dressed afresh, followed by offerings for peace and a release of lanterns onto the river after dark.

The part most visitors remember is mua bong, a dance in which women balance towers of flowers and lamps on their heads in front of the main tower. Dozens of pilgrim troupes from across central Vietnam take turns through the day and evening, and entry to the site has been free during the festival in recent years.

In 2027 the festival ends the day before the 30 April and 1 May public holidays, and the city will be full for a week. Book rooms early, arrive at the towers before 08:00 or after 17:00, and expect the road across the bridge to be slow.

Detailed Information:

• Where: Po Nagar Cham Towers, 61 Hai Thang Tu, Nha Trang
• Expected in 2027: 26 to 29 April
• Entry: About 30,000 VND (about 1 USD) on normal days; free during recent festivals
• From Bai Dai Beach: About 45 minutes by car
• Suits: Anyone interested in Cham culture and living ritual

Read more: Top 30 Things to Do in Nha Trang, Vietnam in 2026

Cau Ngu Whale Worship Festivals

Cau Ngu festivals are held by fishing communities along the whole coast to thank the whale, addressed respectfully as Ong Nam Hai, the Lord of the Southern Sea. Fishermen believe whales shelter boats in storms, and each village keeps a shrine, called a lang ong, where whale bones are preserved.

Each village sets its own date in the second or third lunar month, at the start of the fishing season, which puts most of them in March and April 2027. A festival lasts about three days. It begins with a procession of decorated boats out to sea to welcome the whale’s spirit, and continues with offerings at the shrine through the night.

The performance to look for is ho ba trao, a rowing song acted out by a crew of men with oars in front of the shrine, telling of a boat brought safely through a storm. Communal houses such as Truong Dong in the south of the city are among the best known places to see it, and a shortened version is staged during the Sea Festival.

Dates are posted in the village only a week or two ahead. Ask your hotel to phone the ward office, go early in the morning for the boat procession, and stand back from the altar during the rites.

Detailed Information:

• Where: Whale shrines and communal houses in Nha Trang’s fishing wards
• Expected in 2027: March to April, different dates in each village
• Entry: Free
• From Bai Dai Beach: About 40 minutes by car to the southern wards
• Suits: Early risers and photographers

Am Chua Festival in Dien Khanh

Am Chua Festival takes place on Dai An mountain in Dien Dien, about 20 km west of Nha Trang, at the shrine regarded as the goddess Thien Y A Na’s earthly home. It is the first half of a pair: pilgrims worship here at the start of the third lunar month, then go on to Po Nagar three weeks later.

In 2026 it ran from 17 to 19 April, the first to third days of the third lunar month, and drew about 20,000 people and more than 150 pilgrim groups. The same lunar dates in 2027 fall on 7 to 9 April.

The rites include offerings of incense and flowers, a traditional sacrifice ceremony and the opening of the royal decrees that honour the goddess, with mua bong troupes dancing on the terrace below the shrine. It is smaller and more rural than Po Nagar, and a visitor can stand much closer to the dancers.

Detailed Information:

• Where: Am Chua shrine, Dai An mountain, Dien Dien
• Expected in 2027: 7 to 9 April
• Entry: Free
• From Bai Dai Beach: About 50 minutes by car
• Suits: Travellers who want the ritual without the city crowds

Salanganes’ Nest Festival on Hon Noi

The Salanganes’ Nest Festival honours the people who founded the bird’s nest trade in Khanh Hoa almost 700 years ago. It is held on the tenth day of the fifth lunar month at the temple on Hon Noi, one of the islands where swiftlets build the edible nests that are the province’s most valuable product.

The date marks the death in 1793 of Le Thi Huyen Tram, a woman admiral who fell defending the nest islands and is worshipped there as their guardian. In 2026 the ceremony took place on 24 June. In 2027 the same lunar date falls on 14 June.

The rites are led by the state company that manages the islands, and the temple is reached only by boat. Visitors usually see it as part of a day trip to Hon Noi. Ask tour operators whether boats are running to the island on the festival day.

Detailed Information:

• Where: Temple on Hon Noi island, Nha Trang Bay
• Expected in 2027: 14 June
• Entry: By boat tour; island fees apply
• From Bai Dai Beach: About 40 minutes by car to the city piers, then by boat
• Suits: Visitors already planning an island day

Read more: What to Eat in Nha Trang 2026: Local Dishes & Where to Find Them

The Khanh Hoa Sea Festival in 2027

The Sea Festival is the province’s own invention, a civic celebration of the coast with concerts, parades and sport. It is also the event that has changed most, which is why older advice about it is unreliable.

From One Weekend to a Four-Season Plan

The Sea Festival began in 2003 and for two decades was held every second year in early summer. That pattern has ended. The 2025 edition was stretched over eleven weeks, from 10 April to 27 June, with 39 events. The 2026 edition returned to a single weekend, 17 to 19 July, under the name Khanh Hoa Sea Festival.

That weekend drew about 787,500 visitors, some 50,000 of them from abroad, and filled more than 85 percent of the province’s rooms. Four-star and five-star properties passed 90 percent.

For 2027 the provincial culture department has proposed a year-round format with events in every season. Spring would open with sea and Lunar New Year celebrations from January to March, followed by summer, autumn and winter programmes, each with one major event. The province has agreed in principle to let planning go ahead, but neither the schedule nor the events are fixed yet.

The plan was a proposal when it was reported at the end of September 2026, and no dates had been fixed. Treat any single 2027 date you see online as unconfirmed until the province publishes its programme.

Parades, Concerts and Nights on April 2 Square

The 2026 edition shows what a headline weekend looks like. The opening ceremony filled April 2 Square on the Friday evening. On Saturday afternoon a carnival of about 2,000 performers and 26 floats moved along Tran Phu, the seafront boulevard, and a closing concert with international acts ended the Sunday.

Around those three days ran almost 30 smaller events over a month, among them a sailing race, a kite festival on the beach, a bird’s nest food fair and displays of Cham pottery and weaving. Everything on the square and the seafront was free to watch.

The practical advice is the same every time. Be on Tran Phu at least an hour before a parade or fireworks display, because the viewing areas fill early and the surrounding streets close to traffic. Eat before you go, or a few streets inland, where the queues are shorter.

Cham Festivals South of Cam Ranh

Since the provinces merged in July 2025, Khanh Hoa has stretched south to include Phan Rang, the heartland of Vietnam’s Cham community. Its festivals are closer to the Cam Ranh peninsula than to Nha Trang, and few visitors to the resorts know they are there.

Kate at Po Klong Garai

Kate is the most important festival of the Cham who follow Brahmanism, held on the first day of the seventh month of the Cham calendar to honour their kings and ancestors. Its main rites take place at Po Klong Garai, three brick towers from the late 13th century on a hill above Phan Rang.

In 2026 the festival ran across the province from 5 to 12 October, with the central ceremony on 10 October. On that morning the royal costumes are carried up the hill in procession by the Raglai people, who keep them through the year. Priests then open the tower door, bathe the king’s statue and dress it, to the sound of ginang drums and the saranai horn.

Families bring trays of offerings and picnic on the hillside afterwards, and Cham villages nearby hold their own celebrations for several days. The 2027 date will follow the Cham calendar and is expected in late September or October.

The towers are open every day between 07:30 and 17:30, and a ticket costs 20,000 VND (about 1 USD). Come before 07:00 on the main day to see the procession arrive, and dress modestly.

Detailed Information:

• Where: Po Klong Garai towers, Do Vinh, Phan Rang
• Expected in 2027: Late September or October; date set by the Cham calendar
• Entry: 20,000 VND (about 1 USD)
• From Bai Dai Beach: About 1 hour 20 minutes by car
• Suits: Culture-minded travellers staying on the Cam Ranh side

Bau Truc Pottery and the Grape Harvest

Bau Truc, a Cham village just south of Phan Rang, makes pottery by hand without a wheel: the potter walks backwards around the clay. The village held its first pottery festival from 10 to 12 October 2026, alongside Kate, with open workshops and firings in the street.

The same area grows most of Vietnam’s table grapes, and its former grape and wine festival is being considered as the base for an international event in the south of the province in 2027. Neither has a confirmed date yet. Check a month or two ahead if you plan to combine them with Kate.

Public Holidays With a Festival Feel

Three dates in the civic calendar fill the seafront without being festivals in the traditional sense, and they affect room rates as much as any temple event.

New Year’s Eve Countdown and Fireworks

On 31 December the city holds a countdown concert on April 2 Square, and fireworks are let off from 23:59 until about 00:15. The streets around the square close for the evening, and a second display takes place at Lunar New Year, which in 2027 falls on the night of 5 February. What stays open that week is covered in the guide to the Tet holiday in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang.

Hung Kings’ Day and the Long Weekend in April

Hung Kings’ Day, the tenth of the third lunar month, is a national holiday that falls on Friday 16 April in 2027. The Hung Kings Temple at 173 Ngo Gia Tu holds an incense ceremony in the morning, and the three-day weekend brings domestic visitors to the beaches.

Two weeks later, 30 April and 1 May form the busiest domestic holiday of the spring. In 2027 they follow directly after the Po Nagar festival, which makes late April the single most crowded stretch of the year outside Tet and the summer.

Mid-Autumn Lanterns in September

The Mid-Autumn Festival, on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, is a children’s night of lanterns, mooncakes and lion dances. In 2027 it is expected on 15 September. Lion troupes work their way along the shopping streets of Nha Trang after dark, drumming at each doorway, and most resorts and hotels stage a lantern parade for younger guests.

Getting Through a Festival Day in Nha Trang

Festival days are long, hot and crowded, and the hardest part is usually getting home at the end. A few arrangements made in advance help.

Crowds, Closed Streets and the Ride Back

On parade and fireworks nights, Tran Phu closes to traffic around April 2 Square from late afternoon. Taxis and ride-hailing cars cannot reach the seafront, so agree a pick-up point two or three streets inland before the event starts. Day rates for a driver are set out in the guide to Cam Ranh and Nha Trang car rental.

Leave either fifteen minutes before the end or half an hour after it, when the first wave has cleared. From the centre to the Cam Ranh peninsula is about 40 minutes on the coast road once you are out of the city, and it is the one direction that stays clear.

Rooms near the seafront sell out a month or two ahead of the big weekends, and rates rise. Which side of the bay to sleep on is weighed up in the comparison of Cam Ranh or Nha Trang, and festival season is when the answer matters most.

Reaching the Festival Sites From Nha Trang and Cam Ranh

None of the festival sites has parking to speak of, and most are a taxi ride from either side of the bay. A metered taxi or ride-hailing car is the simplest way in from the city, while guests on the peninsula usually book a car and driver for the half day. The options are compared in the guides on how to get around Cam Ranh and the transfer from Nha Trang to Cam Ranh.

Distances to the Main Festival Sites

Dress and Etiquette at Temples and Whale Shrines

Temple festivals are acts of worship, and visitors are guests. A few courtesies are expected everywhere:

• Cover shoulders and knees, and take off hats inside shrines
• Remove shoes where others do, usually at the door of the inner hall
• Do not walk between worshippers and the altar, or touch offerings
• Ask before photographing dancers or priests at close range, and never use flash during a rite
• Carry small notes for the donation box, and water, since shade is scarce on the hills

A Sample Week in Late April 2027

A traveller with a week from 24 April can see the peak of the year. Spend the first two days on the beach, then go to Po Nagar for the robe-changing ceremony on the morning of 26 April and return one evening for the dancing and the lanterns on the river.

Keep 28 April for a quieter outing, such as a whale shrine in the southern wards or the craft villages of Dien Khanh. Then stay out of the city on 30 April and 1 May, when the holiday crowds arrive. A day-by-day outline for the non-festival days is in the Nha Trang itinerary.

A Quiet Beachfront Base After a Festival Day

Festival nights are loud, and the quietest place to end one is across the bay. Alma Resort Cam Ranh sits on Bai Dai Beach on the Cam Ranh peninsula, about 40 minutes south of April 2 Square and well outside the street closures. Travel + Leisure readers voted it the number one resort in Southeast Asia in 2024, and it stayed in the regional top five in the 2026 edition.

The 1 Bedroom Villa, Private Pool, Ocean View suits a couple on a festival trip. A king master suite sits behind floor-to-ceiling windows, and the rest of the 147 sqm goes to a separate lounge with a sofa and dining table and a bathroom with a deep tub and a rain shower.

Outside, a sun terrace and a private infinity pool look over the resort to the sea. After a morning in the incense and crowds at Po Nagar, the afternoon here is a swim and a sleep, with nothing to decide until dinner.

The villa has its own coffee machine and a small pantry, and the resort runs a full laundry service. Both matter more than usual in festival week, when clothes come back smelling of incense smoke and an early start for a dawn boat procession needs coffee before the restaurants open.

Back from the city in the afternoon, Alma Lounge is the easiest place to stop. It is an open, curved room above the pool terraces with a view to the sea, serving breakfast from 07:00, lunch from 11:00 to 17:00 and dinner until 21:30. Live piano, mostly light jazz and popular tunes, plays in the background after lunch.

The lunch menu runs from Vietnamese dishes to Western ones. A bowl of Beef Pho is 275,000 VND (about 11 USD) and the Alma Signature Burger, with an Angus patty, cheddar and sundried tomato, is 480,000 VND (about 18 USD). Ten flavours of ice cream follow, durian among them.

Guests who still want music after dark can stay at the resort for it. The American Lounge & Bar is an art-deco room with an outdoor patio that opens at 17:00 each day and closes at midnight. The Alma Teddies, a house trio, play pop and rock classics there six nights a week from 21:00 to 23:00.

The bar list runs from classics such as the Old Fashioned and Mai Tai to Vietnamese spirits, including Sampan rhum, and its Gentlemen’s Night takes 30 percent off a set list of cocktails. Dynamite Shrimps, 210,000 VND (about 8 USD), and two kinds of Chicken Popcorn are good for sharing.

Guests who would rather not arrange their own transport to a festival can book a tour. Zazen Travel, the tour company based at the resort, runs a Cultural and Heritage Tour that stops at Truong Son Craft Village, the Po Nagar towers, Nha Trang Cathedral, built between 1928 and 1933, and Dam Market. Its Nha Trang Night Adventure pairs the puppet show at Do Theatre with street food and the night market.

A third tour stays on the Cam Ranh side: a morning at Cam Duc Market, a pagoda and a mango farm, ending with a cooking class back at the resort. Bookings are made at the Promotions Desk in the lobby or on 0929 352 782, and it is sensible to ask about timing when a festival is on, since a driver who knows which streets are closed saves an hour.

The resort also has a stage of its own. The Alma Show, an evening of music and dance, plays at the open-air Amphitheater by the entrance gate, usually from 20:00. It is the one performance of a festival week that ends a few minutes from your own door instead of a drive back across the bay.

US dollar amounts are converted at 26,000 VND. Festival dates and resort schedules are both confirmed close to the time. Check them before you book.

Conclusion

The festivals in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang reward travellers who check the calendar twice: once for the lunar date, and once for the official programme. April brings Am Chua, Hung Kings’ Day and Po Nagar within about three weeks, the Sea Festival may become a year-round series, and Kate adds a reason to look south in autumn. All 2027 dates here are expected dates. Reconfirm before travelling.

Alma Resort Cam Ranh gives festival-goers a private pool and a quiet beach to come back to, with Alma Lounge open through the afternoon and a tour desk that knows the road closures. Choose your festival, then reserve the villa for the same week.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Nha Trang Sea Festival in 2027?

No single date has been set. The province has proposed events in all four seasons of 2027, so check the official programme early in the year.

Is the Nha Trang Sea Festival held every year?

It was held every two years from 2003, but editions took place in both 2025 and 2026. For 2027 the province has proposed a year-round series, with no dates fixed yet.

When is the Po Nagar festival?

It runs from the 20th to the 23rd day of the third lunar month. In 2027 that is expected to be 26 to 29 April.

Are festivals in Nha Trang free to attend?

Most are. Temple festivals and Sea Festival events on the seafront are free, though some sites charge a small entry fee on ordinary days.

Is Nha Trang crowded during the Sea Festival?

Yes. The 2026 weekend drew about 787,500 visitors and filled more than 85 percent of rooms, so book a month or two ahead. Staying across the bay, for example at Alma Resort Cam Ranh on Bai Dai Beach, keeps you about 40 minutes from the crowds.