Under the 2026 Implementation Plan for the Preservation and Promotion of the Gong Cultural Heritage in Gia Lai Province, the festival is expected to be held at Dai Doan Ket Square, Pleiku Ward. The event will involve participation from local gong artisans, representatives from other provinces, and international delegations from several Asian countries engaged in cultural exchange.
The organisation of the International Gong Festival forms part of the overall tasks of the 2026–2030 plan under Resolution No. 100/NQ-HDND dated December 9, 2025, of the Provincial People’s Council, aiming to preserve and promote the value of the gong cultural space heritage in Gia Lai.
The festival is not only an occasion to honour the heritage value of the gong cultural space but also serves as a cultural diplomacy event, helping to introduce the scenery, culture, and people of Gia Lai to the world.
Hosting the 2026 National Tourism Year is expected to create many opportunities for the local tourism sector. A series of distinctive cultural and artistic programmes will be organised to attract visitors. The International Gong Festival in Gia Lai in the fourth quarter of 2026 promises to offer many enjoyable experiences for tourists.
In recent years, Gia Lai has implemented numerous practical activities to make gong culture a distinctive cultural-tourism product. These include the weekly “Weekend gong – Enjoy and experience” programme, held on Saturday evenings at Dai Doan Ket Square, Nguyen Tat Thanh Square, and other locations, creating a community cultural space and attracting interest from locals and tourists alike.
In addition, the Provincial Ethnic Cultural Festival, scheduled for April 2026, will gather artisans from different ethnic groups to perform gong music and recreate traditional festival spaces, contributing to spreading the heritage value in contemporary life.
In 2026, the province will complete a survey, inventory, and data update on the number of gongs, performing and teaching artisans, gong tuning specialists, and community cultural groups using gongs. Traditional rituals and festivals of the Bahnar and H’re peoples will be restored, linked to digital archives to ensure cultural authenticity is preserved.
Furthermore, training classes in gong performance, tuning, and preservation will be held for the Bahnar, Jrai, Cham, and H’re communities, and at ethnic boarding schools with middle and high school levels across the province. Teaching content will be standardised for sound quality, gong ensemble structure for festivals, and educational purposes, contributing to the transmission of heritage to younger generations.
Gia Lai is also investing in the Gong cultural space at Pleiku Museum, applying digital technologies such as virtual reality and QR codes to increase interactivity and serve visitors during the 2026 National Tourism Year. Support for the purchase of gongs, traditional costumes, and musical instruments for villages, as well as the installation of performance stages for regular demonstrations, is being implemented to gradually restore and complete the performance space.
In 2026, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism chose Gia Lai as the host of the National Tourism Year, based on criteria including natural conditions, cultural resources, tourism development potential, and readiness to organise events.
Following the merger with Binh Dinh, Gia Lai now possesses a multi-layered, diverse, and inter-regional tourism resource system, harmoniously combining tradition and modernity. The theme “Gia Lai – Mountains embrace the sea” clearly reflects a development approach grounded in culture and sustainability. This message does not fragment space or separate values but creates a seamless experiential flow for tourists visiting Gia Lai.
