Hundreds of thousands turn out in Tuyen Quang for Mid-Autumn, with 129 giant lanterns and 500 places to stay

Tuyen Quang, a mountain town in northern Vietnam, becomes a festival town welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors for just one week around Mid-Autumn. According to an announcement from Tuyen Quang Province, the 2026 "Tuyen Quang Thanh Tuyen Festival (Lễ hội Thành Tuyên)" will beheld from September 19 to 25with visitor numbers expected to reach around 200,000.129giant Mid-Autumn lanterns are made, and floats selected from among them parade through the town at night. If you're flying to Vietnam with Mid-Autumn as your excuse to travel, checking accommodation and prices ahead of time makes a real difference to how your stay feels.

129 giant lanterns parade through town, festival runs September 19-25

The festival runs September 19 to 25, with the opening weekend on the first two days

The 2026 festival runs for seven days, from September 19 to 25. Lining up the days of the week, the openingSeptember 19 and 20 fall on Saturday and Sunday, while September 21 to 25 are weekdays. If you're timing a trip from Japan around a weekend off, you'll likely gravitate toward the opening Saturday and Sunday. If you'd rather avoid the crowds, building your schedule around the weekdays of September 21-25 lets you stay out of sync with weekend travelers. Now that the dates are public, you can check your calendar and decide in advance which day to arrive.

Of the 129 lanterns, 40 join the parade

The star of this festival is the giant, lit Mid-Autumn lanterns that move through the streets at night. According to the province's announcement,129lantern models are made, and from among them for the parade40are selected to parade through the town. Not all 129 come out at once. Rather than chasing every lantern, checking the parade time and route from local notices before heading out will save you from wasted waiting. This is what sets it apart from Mid-Autumn in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City — here, the whole town moves together.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors, around 500 lodgings in the center

About 500 lodgings in the town center

According to the province, lodgings in the festival's central district numberabout 500. That figure covers hotels, guesthouses, and homestays combined. With roughly 200,000 visitors expected over the week, demand will concentrate first on lodgings in the town center. The number of rooms, how many guests stay multiple nights, and the share of day-trippers haven't been published, so it's hard to say exactly how fast rooms will fill — but with a limited pool of lodgings, the earlier you book, the more choice you'll have. Tuyen Quang is also a place reached overland from the Hanoi direction, so securing lodging shapes how the whole trip comes together.

Examples of regional lodging running dry during major events

Regional cities across Vietnam have seen hotel rooms fill up all at once around major events. On a different scale, in the coastal city of Nha Trang, over the weekend of a major international tournament,an example where overnight guests reached 95,000 in just two daysshows how quickly lodging demand can spike in a short window. If the town center is booked out, it's realistic to widen your search to homestays in neighboring provinces or towns. As an idea for extending your trip into the countryside,the 5 villages nominated for Best Tourism Villageare worth considering for a rural stay.

Province orders lodgings to post prices and publicize a hotline

Making room rates visible, and stepping up inspections

Festivals that draw crowds tend to come with price gouging. This time, the province has instructed lodgings topost their pricesandpublicize a complaint hotline, and has said relevant departments will step up patrols and inspections. Protecting yourself as a traveler is simple: at places without prices posted, confirm the total out loud before ordering, and if the amount charged doesn't match what you were quoted, report it to the publicized hotline. Simply choosing lodgings and shops that display their prices upfront cuts down a lot of the friction at checkout.

Goods sales limited to OCOP-certified products, craft village festival runs alongside

A craft village products festival, bringing together local makers, runs alongside the main event.66 businesseswill have stalls, with the number of booths reaching120. The province is limiting the goods sold toOCOP-certifiedlocal products, making it easier for visitors to choose souvenirs with a clear origin. If you're buying souvenirs, it's easier to judge value by the prices posted at certified booths rather than a street vendor's asking price. If shopping is on your itinerary, it's worth building this festival venue into your route as early as you plan your lodging.

How to combine Hanoi's Mid-Autumn with the mountain festival

A city café and a regional festival play different roles

Even for the same Mid-Autumn holiday, the city and the countryside offer different experiences. In Hanoi, you can enjoy it lightly in photogenic spaces,Cafés for Mid-Autumn photosand a few hours of café-hopping is enough to make a trip work on its own. Tuyen Quang, by contrast, is the real deal — a week-long, town-wide festival where locking down lodging and dates comes first. If you're flying in and out of Hanoi, it makes sense to soak up the Mid-Autumn mood in the city first, then head north and make the giant mountain lanterns the main event of your trip.

Lining up lodging, transport, and price checks before you leave

Here's the order to follow. First, book lodging early around the weekdays of September 21-25, and if the town center is full, widen your search to neighboring provinces or homestays. Next, arrange transport from Hanoi at the same time as lodging. On the ground, choose lodgings and shops that display their prices, and confirm the total upfront. Choose souvenirs based on the prices posted at OCOP-certified booths. Turn these four points into a pre-departure checklist, and you'll have fewer moments of hesitation on the day.

Quick reference: dates, scale, and practical information

Here's a summary of the key dates and scale confirmed in the source article, to help you grasp the overall picture.

The first move is securing lodging

With the festival dates set for September 19-25 and around 500 lodgings known to exist in the town center, securing a room is the first thing that determines whether the trip goes smoothly. The starting move is clear: center your search on the weekdays of September 21-25, and if the town center is full, widen your range to neighboring provinces or homestays, and provisionally book at least one night first. Once your dates and lodging are set, all that's left is arranging transport and confirming prices on the ground, one item at a time.

Sources

• Tuoi Tre, "Hàng trăm nghìn người đổ về Tuyên Quang dịp Trung thu, làm gì để ngăn chặn chặt chém?" (September 8, 2026)