Held before the start of planting season as a call for rain and a celebration of fertility, Boun Bang Fai features a variety of fun activities beyond just firing rocket. (Photo: www.laostourism.org) Vientiane (VNA) – Localities in Laos have been turning Boun Bang Fai (Rocket Festival) – a long-lasting major festival in the Southeast Asia country – into a tourism event to attract visitors.
Held before the start of planting season as a call for rain and a celebration of fertility, Boun Bang Fai features a variety of fun activities beyond just firing rockets. Visiting the festival, people can see men in traditional Lao women’s clothes and makeup; elephant and horse pantomime puppets; and a cacophony of loud music, food stalls, and vendors selling firecrackers. After a day of dancing and entertainment, people gather in the field on the town’s outskirts to launch self-made fireworks rockets. Prizes are awarded for the best decorated and highest soaring rockets.
This year, for the first time, authorities in Feuang district which is over 120km away from Vientiane, held Boun Bang Fai at Nam Lik Tourism area as a way to promote the area.
Khamphet Chanchomphou, Party Secretary and Chairman of Feuang district People’s Commitee said that the district organises a big Boun Bang Fai at Nam Lik tourist area for three main goals. Firstly, they aim to maintain and preserve the traditional cultural value. Secondly, to tighten solidarity between government and local people, and thirdly, to promote the local tourist area, thereby helping to create a driving force for the tourism industry in the locality, increasing income for local people.
Through the organisation of the festival, the district authority hopes to increase the number of visitors to the Nam Lik Tourist Area from the current average of about 3,000 visitors per month to at least 10,000 per month.
Khanxay Hitsobath, a tourist from Vientiane, said he traveled to the tourist destination after hearing about Boun Bang Fai Lan, a big firework rocket that most Lao people want to witness firsthand the power it creates when being launched. He also wants to take the occasion to visit the emerging tourist area.
Khanxay highly appreciated the idea of organising the festival in association with the tourism development of the local government.
Thanks to the festival, the Nam Lik tourism area has also become better known by both domestic and international visitors./.
