Researchers have affirmed the Yen The Festival was organized by Hoang Hoa Tham. Before each battle against the French invaders, his troops held flag-worship and oath-taking ceremonies. 

Reenactment of the flag-worship ritual at the Yen The Festival.

At present, the Ha (flag-worship) Communal House and The (oath-taking) Temple prove that activity. Later, when Hoang Hoa Tham died, the festival was still held to the show the people's love toward the hero and the insurgent army in the peasant movement for national liberation.

Since the festival was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2012, the Party committee, authorities and people here have constantly preserved and promoted the traditional values through the conservation, honouring, promotion and organisation of the festival with a larger and larger scale and with its own identities.

On March 16 every year, native people and tourists from across the country flock to Phon Xuong station and The Temple in Cau Go township to attend the festival and recall the invader-fighting tradition of the De Tham insurgent army. 

Here, visitors learn the model of fighting village, visit the post relics, see objects related to the Yen The Uprising and participate in folk games like martial arts competitions, wrestling, horse racing, crossbow shooting, archery and stick pushing. They also see fish releasing and kite flying, attend rice cooking and cake wrapping contests and enjoy the food.

Along with the upgrading of relics and relic sites, rituals have been preserved and many folk games have been restored and supplemented, while the space and scale of the festival have been expanded. The district always determines that the thoughtful organization of the festival is an opportunity for Yen The to attract more tourists, contributing to the development of the local tourism and service industry. 

Besides festive activities, visitors also learn about the potential and strengths in socio-economic development and typical products of the Yen The land which have been invested for brandings like hill chicken, mountain goat and tea...

This year, celebrating the 135th anniversary of the Yen The Uprising, the festival will be organized on a large scale, with many new points. According to the Vice Permanent Chairman of Yen The district People’s Committee, Head of the festival organization board Nguyen Ngoc Son, the number of visitors is expected to increase by 30 percent compared to the recent festival season. 

Representatives of the organizing board examine preparations for the festival.

The district soon established the organizing board, rehearsed and completed the scenario for festive activities, ensuring the honouring of traditional values, while preparing measures to ensure traffic, security and order, environmental sanitation, and food safety and hygiene, toward bringing the beautiful images of Yen The to visitors.

At this year’s event, the organizing board will reserve two areas for displaying and introducing typical local cuisine, including dishes from Yen The hill chicken and mountain goat. The goat-fighting competition will be made part of the festive activities, with the qualifying round taking place successfully at the Xuan Lung-Thac Nga Festival (Xuan Luong commune). 

It promises to bring to visitors exciting matches in the final round, bearing special features of the highland area. The district will also organize a ceremony to receive the second-class Labor Medal, the noble award of the State President acknowledging the merits of the people and officials of Yen The district in the cause of national construction and defence (in the 2014 - 2017 period).

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