The Elephant Festival in Laos is held in the north once a year. This year it was in Sayaboury a town several hours southwest of Luang Prabang. Many people in town set out to see the Elephants and enjoy the festival. Tiger Trail made an event of it as well offering transport and accommodation for any of the staff that wanted to go to the festival.
The Elephants come from many villages and towns in the region and are dressed in traditional fabrics from different ethnic groups in Laos. There were over 60 elephants, which is a small figure considering this was once the “Land of a Million Elephants”.
The festival hosts several different events through out the day, including the procession, elephant bathing, elephant baci (spirit ritual) and even an elephant buffet!
