The festival will take place at Ban Ba Cultural Tourism Village in Trung Ha Commune, where many ethnic Tay people live and rice farming remains an important livelihood.
The event will showcase com, or green rice flakes made from young sticky rice, a traditional food closely associated with Tay farming practices, beliefs and community life.
Organisers said the festival was intended to preserve and promote local ethnic culture, particularly Tay traditions, while introducing local products and tourism attractions.
The three-day event will feature cultural and sporting activities, folk games and hands-on experiences.
A rural and digital market with about 20 stalls will showcase agricultural produce, OCOP products and other local specialities. Visitors will also be able to see how com is traditionally made.
An ethnic costume show and an art programme, Colours of Trung Ha, will be held on the opening day.
The main events on October 10 will include a thanksgiving ritual, the opening ceremony, the inauguration of facilities at Ban Ba Cultural Tourism Village and a com-pounding contest.
Pounding com is an important part of Tay cultural and spiritual life. The tradition is associated with the harvest and expresses gratitude to deities and ancestors for good crops.
Other activities will include trekking to Ban Ba Waterfall, rice harvesting and visits to local scenic sites.
Preserving a Tay tradition
The Tay com-pounding festival in Tuyen Quang originates from the area's long tradition of wet-rice farming.
Under traditional Tay beliefs, plants have their own deities, with the rice deity holding particular importance. The festival is held after the harvest to give thanks for good crops and prosperity.
It also marks the end of the farming cycle and celebrates the new rice harvest. Traditionally, the festival takes place in the eighth or ninth lunar month, when sticky rice begins to mature.
Young sticky rice is made into com through several stages, including selecting, drying, pounding and winnowing the grains.
Fresh com can be eaten with ripe bananas, cooked into porridge, roasted or steamed into sticky rice dishes.
The com-pounding festival has been revived in several parts of Tuyen Quang in recent years, although efforts to preserve the tradition face challenges.
Some rituals are no longer fully practised, while the number of people able to conduct traditional ceremonies has declined.
The Chiem Hoa Tay com-pounding festival has been included on Vietnam's national list of intangible cultural heritage.
In 2025, Trung Ha Commune held a ceremony to mark the recognition and organised a cultural festival featuring local ethnic groups.
Local authorities are now seeking to link the tradition with tourism activities, including rice harvesting, com making, visits to Ban Ba Waterfall, homestays, local food and agricultural products.
The approach is expected to help preserve Tay culture while creating additional income for local residents.
This year's festival will give visitors an opportunity to see Tay rituals and traditional com making, visit a rural market and explore Chiem Hoa, while helping pass the cultural tradition on to younger generations.