Xayaboury Province will hold its annual Elephant Festival next month after being suspended for three years owing to the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
The province has announced the official date for the 16th Elephant Festival in 2023 from 18 to 20 February with a total of 75 elephants participating in the event.
Elephants will participate in majestic processions and there will also be shows featuring performances by elephants, and other activities like elephant painting, city elephant rides and visitors would get a chance to feel elephants as well.
The festival will feature an art exhibition featuring ethnic art and a market selling agricultural, handicraft, and other products from Xayaboury province and neighboring countries. They would be skydiving stunts performed by the Lao Air Force as well.
Mr. Phetphixay Sounvilai, Deputy Governor of Xayaboury Province, said at a press conference that the province has been organizing the annual festival to raise awareness about the decreasing number of the elephant population due to poaching and save them from extinction.
The 15th Elephant Festival was held for only one day as part of a scaled-down event amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.
