A more subdued Saung Oo Festival returns to Ngapali Beach

By DMG 21 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
21 November 2022, Thandwe

The Saung Oo Festival was held for the second year in a row at Ngapali Beach in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township on Monday as part of a tourism promotion campaign.

The festival is taking place again this year with a view toward attracting visitors to Arakan State, including its preeminent tourism beach destination Ngapali, said U Tin Tun Aung, director of the Arakan State Directorate of Hotels and Tourism.

“This festival is celebrated to show that Ngapali Beach has reopened to visitors,” said U Tun Thant Kyaw, a hotelier in Ngapali town. “The opening ceremony was held at 6 a.m. and the number of visitors was more than last year. Previously, about 1,000 travellers visited this festival, but this year, the number of visitors has increased to about 1,500.”

The 2022 Saung Oo Festival drew a significant number of visitors, but the crowd’s geographic origins were mostly regional, said a hotelier who did not want to be named.

“There are a lot of visitors to the Saung Oo Festival, but most visitors are from Arakan State. There are few visitors from mainland Myanmar and abroad,” he said.

Fair activities and sporting events including volleyball, tug-of-war, sand painting and cycling were held during the 2022 Saung Oo Festival.

The festival held in November 2021 also included an entertainment program, but the Arakan State military council did not allow it this year, a resident said.

“Sporting events such as Arakan traditional wrestling and Chinlone events were included in the first festival. This year’s festival didn’t include these sports events due to the military’s arrests of civilians in Thandwe and lack of stability in Arakan State,” the resident added.

The previous Saung Oo Festival was held for about five days, but this year it was only held for one day.