Da Nang: Festivals and Events
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Da Nang’s event calendar has one genuine headline act and a handful of dates worth planning around rather than getting caught out by.
DIFF: the Danang International Fireworks Festival
DIFF is a major international fireworks competition staged over the Han River, and it’s the reason hotel rates near the river spike for weeks at a time. The 2026 edition runs May 30 through July 11 under the theme “Da Nang, United Horizons,” with six fireworks nights, five competition rounds plus one grand final, each starting at 8pm (verify exact dates closer to your trip, this is a long span for a “festival” and the organizer’s own site should be checked for final confirmation). If you’re visiting during that window and haven’t booked early, staying on the My Khe Beach side of the city rather than the riverfront gets you a short taxi ride to viewing spots at non-inflated prices.
Tet, the Lunar New Year
Tet is Vietnam’s biggest holiday everywhere, not just Da Nang, and it’s genuinely disruptive to travel plans if you don’t account for it. Expect closures, price surges on transport and hotels, and many family-run restaurants shut for at least the first few days of the holiday. During Tet, the Dragon Bridge’s fire-and-water show often runs nightly rather than only on weekends, one of the small upsides of visiting during an otherwise inconvenient stretch. It’s also a genuinely festive, colorful time to be in the city if you plan around the closures instead of being surprised by them.
What to know about timing
Vietnam’s lunar calendar means most of these dates shift year to year, so treat anything printed here as a starting point and check current-year dates before you book flights or hotels around them. The DIFF dates especially are worth confirming close to your trip since the festival’s exact nightly schedule has moved in past years.
Planning around the calendar, not just the season
Weather planning matters here too. The rainy season, roughly September through December, with October-November the worst stretch for typhoons and flooding, can affect outdoor events independent of the festival calendar above, so cross-check both before locking in dates for a trip built around a specific event.
Read more: our best time of year breakdown covers the weather side of trip planning in more detail.