2026 Kangding Love Song International Music Festival Celebrated in Sichuan

Dragon Media News Desk

The 2026 Kangding Love Song International Music Festival was held in Kangding City, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, bringing together music, culture and tourism in a celebration centered on the city’s famous love-song tradition.

On the evening of August 19, the historic and widely known “Kangding Love Song” once again echoed across Kangding Love Song Square as the city welcomed the international music festival together with a broader friendship celebration.

The event was jointly organized by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and the People’s Government of Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with the Kangding Municipal Committee, the Kangding Municipal Government and relevant prefecture-level departments responsible for its implementation.

As one of the major autumn events under Sichuan Province’s Four Seasons Music Festival program, this year’s festival was held under the theme of people coming together in Kangding through fortunate encounters and shared affection.

The opening ceremony and a series of interactive activities across the city offered residents and visitors an immersive cultural and tourism experience, turning Kangding into a city-wide celebration of music and love.

The main evening performance was organized into five thematic sections: “Love of Kangding,” “Love of the East,” “Love of the World,” “Love of the Era” and “Love from All Directions.” The program brought together local traditions, contemporary music and broader cultural expressions, presenting love as a shared language connecting people across regions and cultures.

The “Kangding Love Song” is deeply rooted in the cultural identity of Kangding and has become one of the best-known folk songs associated with western Sichuan and Tibetan communities in the region. Over the decades, it has been performed in different languages and has helped introduce Kangding’s local culture and romantic folk traditions to audiences far beyond the region.

In recent years, Kangding has sought to turn this cultural heritage into a broader cultural and tourism identity. The city has developed love-song landmarks, night tourism streets, Tibetan cuisine, local accommodation and other visitor experiences under the concept of building Kangding as a distinctive “city of love songs.”

During the festival, musical performances, cultural activities and tourism programs were held across different parts of the city, promoting both the preservation of traditional culture and the integrated development of culture and tourism.

By linking the century-old cultural appeal of the Kangding Love Song with modern music, tourism and urban experiences, the 2026 festival sought to present the city’s traditional heritage to new generations and visitors from around the world.